Why privacy and transparency are more important than ever

Data use has been in the spotlight recently—and for good reason. A recent survey has revealed Australians have ongoing concerns regarding how their data is being used, and whether it is being passed to third parties.

Highlighting these concerns, the survey by Ron Morgan revealed that Australians now feel a level of distrust when it comes to dealing with some pretty big players: “Over 90% of Australians are either ‘not sure’ or only ‘somewhat understand’ how several leading apps use and/or share their data."

Security, privacy, and transparency have always been central to Moneytree’s ethos. As co-founder Paul Chapman says:

“At Moneytree, we believe your data belongs to you, and you have a right to share it with parties you trust. We use the principles of Privacy by Design to ensure our apps and services put you first and respects your privacy.”

The survey also found that most of us are not so good at keeping up with the terms of service: “only around 15% of Australians claim to ‘always’ or ‘often’ read terms and conditions when signing up for online services and a majority of over 54% rarely or never read them.”

Before you sign up to any new app or service, including Moneytree, Paul says that you should take the time to understand what you’re committing your data to:

“Understand an app’s business model, and scan their privacy policy for keywords like ‘third parties’ or ‘ad networks’ before handing over your data. Companies touting ‘bank like’ security may indeed keep your data safe, up to the point they hand it to someone else. It’s impossible to read everything, so companies that make it easier by writing plainly worded policies, without any surprises, are the ones I prefer to give my business.”

Of course, some terms of service aren’t designed to be user-friendly. Moneytree has done the hard work of making our terms of service simple: easy to read and easy to understand. Have a look, and let us know if you find something unclear or confusing. We take your feedback seriously.

We are excited about all the changes in this space. Discussions around the Australian Consumer Data Right have made us reconsider our relationships and woken us up to potential issues with data handling.

We believe that change is coming, and are hopeful that these changes will give people better information to help them make better decisions.

Want an app that treats you and your data with respect? Meet Moneytree.