Written by Richard Knott, SVP APAC, InfoSum
It has now been more than six years since Australia’s long-anticipated Privacy Act overhaul began, and the conversation remains as charged and consequential as ever. In August, the Productivity Commission released the interim report of its enquiry into Harnessing Data and Digital Technology, which proposed a “dual-track” compliance model, suggesting that businesses should be able to choose between a prescriptive, control-based approach and an outcomes-based model grounded in the “best interests” of the consumer.
While this may seem like a welcome reprieve for businesses concerned about regulatory burden, it risks reigniting a tired and ultimately unproductive debate: that privacy and innovation are somehow at odds.
We’ve heard this before, from those arguing that stronger privacy laws could stifle progress in Australia. But framing privacy as an obstacle misunderstands both the direction of global technology and the expectations of modern consumers.
Richard Knott, SVP APAC InfoSum
Innovation is essential to Australia’s digital and economic future. But so is trust. In a world shaped by data collaboration, automation, and increasingly intelligent technologies, public confidence is no longer a “nice to have”. It is the foundation upon which long-term innovation must be built.
The lesson of the last decade
Over the last decade, digital advertising has delivered incredible innovation, but at a cost. Much of this progress was built on opaque, sprawling data ecosystems where personal information was traded, shared, and repurposed with little regard for the individual behind the data.
The dominant model rewarded data centralisation and mass collection over minimisation and consent. Third-party cookies enabled cross-site surveillance. Data brokers profiled consumers without their knowledge or consent. Tech platforms created closed-loop ecosystems that monetised attention while shielding how data was being used.
What got lost in that rush was the consumer.
This era gave rise to intrusive targeting, poor data hygiene, and widespread privacy erosion. The resulting backlash from regulators and the public, has been clear and consistent. GDPR, CCPA, and Australia’s ongoing Privacy Act reform are all direct responses. So too is the growing rejection of third-party identifiers by browsers and platforms alike.
The key takeaway from this is that consumers aren’t just data points, they’re people who expect fairness, transparency, and respect. Innovation that disregards those expectations is neither sustainable nor competitive.
Australia now faces a unique opportunity. The convergence of Privacy Act reform and the rise of AI presents an opportunity not just to correct past mistakes, but to build something better.
We’ve already seen how privacy pressures can fuel progress. The third-party cookie may not be quite dead yet, but years of expecting its demise have driven a wave of innovation, experimentation, and new thinking that has made the system better.
Privacy by design
If new technologies and approaches bake in privacy by default principles in their foundation, privacy and innovation go hand in hand. In digital advertising, we’re increasingly seeing this on a daily basis. Forward-thinking approaches, such as decentralised data collaboration, federated learning, and privacy-enhancing technologies, allow brands to generate insights without ever centralising or sharing raw data.
Federated learning enables analysis across distributed datasets without requiring them to be moved. Privacy-enhancing technologies such as differential privacy, secure multi-party computation, and encryption keep personal information protected throughout the process. These tools empower brands to deliver relevant, data-driven experiences while maintaining full control and consumer trust.
This is fuelling a broader rethink of how data is valued, no longer as a commodity to be owned, but as a strategic asset to be connected, safeguarded, and activated responsibly.
The coming months will unveil the conclusion of privacy reform, but whatever comes down the pipes, my take is that for an industry still reckoning with the consequences of opaque data practices, this is the moment to reset.
It’s very possible to create a future where the brands and partners that thrive won’t be those that collect the most data, they’ll be those that use it most responsibly. Those who design for privacy understand that innovation and accountability must go hand in hand.
The next era of digital advertising will be shaped not by how much we know about people, but by how well we respect them.
As Australia’s Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind recently noted, “A more productive economy is contingent upon Australian consumers confidently participating in the digital economy and businesses retaining the trust of their customers in deploying new innovations. Privacy is an important foundation to enable that to happen.”