20 Better Choices: Better Deals
Establishing trust in the exchange of information
– both for businesses (knowing that they have
correctly identified the consumer) and consumers
(knowing that the information is protected during
the whole process) – is essential to realise the
potential of this exciting new project. However we
would like to stress that Government’s role in this
project will not include viewing or handling any of
the data involved.
Government’s role will be to set the vision; to
help create interest among consumers, businesses
and commentators; and to help the market
operate in an effective and safe way.There will
also be a role in removing barriers to access,
particularly for vulnerable consumers who are not
technologically savvy or do not have access to the
internet or smartphones, to ensure that everyone
who wants to take advantage of these
developments can do so.We do not wish to
burden or penalise small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs), so we will explore support for
those who do want to be involved.We will work
closely with representatives of vulnerable and
disadvantaged consumers and interested SMEs to
develop this proposal to meet their needs.
Given the potential operational, cost and privacy
implications for the ways in which businesses
currently store and release data,‘mydata’ is not
something that can happen overnight. However,
we will work with businesses and consumer
groups to make this happen as soon as possible.
As explained in the Introduction, the consumer
empowerment strategy seeks to achieve its
objectives through a non-regulatory approach.
Given the positive reaction from many partners
so far, we hope a voluntary approach to ’mydata’
will establish rapid progress. However, if progress
towards our vision is unreasonably slow (such as
failing to reach agreement on a standard for the
format of data being released), or consumers
trying to access information encounter serious
difficulties, Government will consider remedies,
including appropriate legislation.
So we have established a working group of major
businesses from the financial, telecoms, retail,
online and utilities sectors, internet security
companies, the Information Commissioner’s
Office, consumer groups and the Government to
drive and co-ordinate ’mydata’. A roundtable was
held at No.10 Downing Street in March 2011,
where organisations committed to working
together to deliver ‘mydata’. Leading businesses
already signed up include: Barclaycard, Mastercard,
HSBC, RBS Group, Lloyds TSB, John Lewis
Partnership, Groupe Aeroplan (Nectar)Home
Retail Group, Centrica, Southern and Scottish
Energy, Everything Everywhere (T-Mobile/Orange)
and Google. Other businesses or organisations
who wish to become early adopters and partners
in the ’mydata’ group should contact BIS via:
www.bis.gov.uk/better-choices
This group is tasked with developing a self-
regulatory, voluntary agreement to release
personal data in an open, reusable format.The
Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer and
Postal Affairs will chair quarterly progress checks
and formally review progress in one year (April
2012).
The group will come together for these quarterly
progress checks, but will initially work in sectoral
sub-groups to agree a format and timetable for
releasing data.The sub-groups will be chaired by
Prof. Nigel Shadbolt, who will co-ordinate and
drive progress across the groups.
In addition, a cross-sectoral ‘Privacy, Security and
Legal’ sub-group will work with internet security
providers to ensure trustworthy and secure
systems are in place to process consumers’ data
transfers with sufficient levels of protection, and
with the Information Commissioner’s Office to
develop new guidelines and toolkits.This group
will also consider if and where in the legal
framework appropriate amendments need to be
made. Consumer groups, such as Citizens Advice,
Which? and Consumer Focus as well as privacy
groups, will also be actively involved in providing
support and challenge to these groups in order to
ensure agreements meet the needs and concerns
of consumers.