Protect consumer rights in digital industries: experts

All industries and their respective regulatory bodies are responsible for ensuring consumer protection as well as deepening financial inclusion, according to speakers at a webinar.

"The attainment of trust of consumers is a fundamental need for digital industries as well since they are the main driving force of any industry," said Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI).

However, the responsibility of gaining that trust lies with the relevant government bodies and industry people, he added.

The PRI executive director went on to say that unless consumer participation grows as a result of increased trust, no industry can survive in current times.

"Consumer protection is fundamentally good for business and so, all industries must and shall remain aware of this trust and participation, and work for the development of this trust," Mansur said.

He made these comments while delivering a speech at a webinar, styled "Bangladesh Consumer Protection in The Digital Age", jointly organised by The Daily Star and PRI yesterday.

The principle of financial protection for customers has already been laid out by many developed countries.

"So, we don't need to reinvent it. We can just take their example, reflect on each of those cases and how we can customize it to fit Bangladesh's context," Mansur added.

It is also high time to introduce digital financial literacy subjects in the education system, especially at the secondary and higher secondary levels.

Besides, students should be taught basic safety precautions on the use of digital financial services so that they can create awareness among their parents as well.

"Digital financial services are here to stay, we will not only live with it, we have to use it. So we need to learn it properly," he said.

Mansur suggested that the government should establish a separate wing for e-commerce and mobile financial services to oversee and resolve customer complaints.

"The overall digital consumer protection in the broader aspect has not been covered by the media to an extent for people to be aware about it," he added.

MA Razzaque, research director at the PRI, presented a study at the event.

In it, he said digital footprints, or personal data, were left behind after every online transaction. This personal data is often used to provide personalised advertising but there is complexity, opacity, and uncertainty around this issue.

"Misleading, unethical or fraudulent commercial practices are also possible using personal data," Razzaque said.

The leakage of such data could make consumers victims of crimes such as privacy infringement and identity theft.

The pace of technological changes is faster than the developments in legal provisions, he added.

Razzaque went on to say that in 2020, Bangladesh was given an overall financial score of 42 by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and ranked 44th among 55 middle and low-income countries, which was very low.

In the consumer protection index, Bangladesh is ranked 48th among 55 countries.

He suggested providing a more comprehensive and robust consumer protection framework for the users of digital financial services.

He also recommended going for capacity building of consumer rights groups, increasing consumer awareness, strengthening digital financial literacy of consumers, introducing effective digital financial literacy programmes, and user education at the sign-up stage.

"Data protection is one of the crucial matters in the digital age as the information of digital customers is being leaked in many cases," said Tanvir A Mishuk, founder and managing director of Nagad, a local digital financial service provider.

Some people get random phone calls from different numbers offering something to sell. This is because their data was leaked but it wasn't leaked by the organisation, rather it was an employee.

"At Nagad, we have the data of 5.4 crore crore people. So, it's our responsibility to protect the customers' information such as where they are eating and how they are spending money," Mishuk said.

"To do that, we keep it fully encrypted with a four-layer protection system and our employees don't have access to much of that data. So, it is not possible to download our data and sell it to others. I think every operator should emphasise on this," he added.

Many complaints are now coming against e-commerce platforms. Amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a boom in e-commerce and most of the irregularities have occurred during this period, according to Syed Yusuf Saadat, senior research associate at the Centre for Policy Dialogue.

"Although ensuring law and order and consumer protection in the e-commerce sector are crucial, we should not over regulate as it is a growing industry at a nascent stage," he said.

Many e-commerce companies are in this stage and are trying hard to ensure consumer rights.

"So, they should not suffer for those who came here with ulterior motives," Saadat added.

SM Nazer Hossain, vice president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said consumers were the most vulnerable group as they have no voice and no participation and there was no one there to listen to them.

Even in formulating recent e-commerce guidelines, there were no participants representing consumers.

"Most of the policies are formulated now for providing privileges to the businesses," Hossain said, adding that 16 crore consumers were now suffering as a result.

The role of a regulatory authority is very important. Immense discrimination prevails both at the consumer and business-ends in Bangladesh, so fraudulent activities are on the rise.

Mahabubul Islam, head of Dutch-Bangla Bank's Rocket, and Farhana A Rahman, senior vice-president of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, also spoke at the event.