In May 2018, the Australian Government announced that it would legislate a CDR to allow consumers to harness the power of their data and provide consumers with greater control over their data. 

Our key takeaways:

• The Consumer Data Right will confer a right on consumers (both individuals and business customers) to access particular data and have that data transferred to either themselves or to a third party. 
• The impact to private sector organisations is likely to be significant as both competition and regulatory compliance costs increase. 
• Despite a planned economy-wide roll out being announced, it is likely we will only see consumers provided with access to their banking, energy, phone and internet data in the short to medium-term. Although, the reciprocity principles may see other data sets from other industries shared earlier in some instances.
• Lawyers, particularly those in the energy and telecommunications sectors, should consider advising their private sector clients, to engage with the Treasurer's consultation process for the draft legislation implementing the Consumer Data Right. 

NSW Government has launched its new shortform ICT contract – the Core& agreement – as part of its program to transform ICT procurement.  The aim of that program is to deliver end-to-end commercial lifecycle management that optimises how NSW Government buys and uses technology. 

Today the Treasury released the much anticipated exposure draft legislation which will implement the Consumer Data Right. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Consumer Data Right) Bill 2018 (the Bill) seeks to amend the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010.

Gilbert + Tobin's Digtial Radar newsletter discussing all things AI, Blockchain, Cyber, Data and IoT.

Mandatory personal data breach notification laws were introduced in Australia in February 2018 which required organisations to notify data breaches likely to result in serious harm to any individuals to those persons and the Australian Information Commissioner (the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme).

There have been a number of developments around the globe in relation to cryptocurrencies. Regulators in Malta, India and the Philippines have made significant headway into implementing frameworks to more comprehensively regulate implementation of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and cryptocurrency more generally.