Ofcom’s Online Safety Transparency Consultation - Which? response

Which? welcomes this opportunity to provide our view on Ofcom’s proposed statutory guidance for online services relating to transparency reporting under the Online Safety Act (OSA). As mentioned in the guidance, these harms include fraud as a category of major harm, which is the focus of our consultation response.

Which? understands that Ofcom’s proposals relating to online safety transparency will require relevant online platforms (those that fall within the OSA regulations) to present information and data through annual reports to identify patterns and trends of illegal harm that consumers experience. By making information accessible, consumers will know more about the fraud (including fraudulent advertising) that occurs on different online platforms and Ofcom puts forward that this could be valuable for informing consumer choice about the online services they use. 

We support Ofcom’s proposal as a step in the right direction for protecting consumers online. However, we would encourage Ofcom to consider carefully what data will be collected as part of transparency reporting and whether the current proposed guidance is missing an opportunity to feed relevant data into cross-sector fraud data-sharing efforts. This could be through Ofcom sharing data it collects or by Ofcom mandating that regulated online services participate in certain fraud data sharing activities. This could include initiatives with anti-scam agencies, law enforcement, telecoms, and banking that aim to share data for the purposes of fraud prevention by gaining wider insights into fraud occurring across sectors. We would like to see Ofcom consider whether it could harness transparency reporting powers to collect and share data, providing a more comprehensive understanding of fraudulent activity, spot red flags, identify patterns, and collaborate to protect consumers more effectively against fraud.

Through this response, we seek clarity on the specific plans and propose information that Ofcom could include in the transparency reports to improve collaboration in the fight against fraud.