A new report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has found that Australians are increasingly turning to online private messaging services from Facebook and Apple to keep in touch.
The ACCC said its first Digital Platform Services Inquiry interim report showed how the use of online private messaging services had grown significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic and identified competition and consumer issues across digital platforms.
Chair of the ACCC, Rod Sims said Australians had embraced the use of online private messaging apps and many consumers used a range of messaging services throughout the day.
“Consumers commonly choose to use the biggest providers in part because their friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances are also more likely to use them, and because most online messaging services don’t allow consumers to send or receive messages to users of different services,” Mr Sims said.
“This means the big players have a significant competitive advantage over small entrants,” he said.
“Research conducted and commissioned by the ACCC for the report shows that many digital platforms, including online private messaging providers and suppliers of advertising services, are able to extensively track users’ activities online and on mobile apps through the use of cookies, software development kits and other technologies.”
Mr Sims said large platforms and advertising service providers were able to receive a range of user information from Android apps.
He said the terms and policies of most online private messaging services included broad statements which allowed for the collection of extensive information about users, but provided little clarity about how a consumer’s data would be collected, used, or shared with others.
“As large platforms continue to collect vast amounts of consumer information, they are also expanding into new sectors, growing their ‘ecosystems’ and with it, their market power and ability to draw in, and lock in, consumers,” he said.
“These expanded services can deliver benefits to consumers, but the impacts on competition and consumer choice need to be closely monitored and considered.”
Mr Sims said the ACCC remained concerned about scam activity on digital platforms including on messaging services, having found that reports of scams on those platforms was increasing.
The ACCC’s 186-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
