AGL Consumer Data Right Policy

2. About the Consumer Data Right

What is the Consumer Data Right?

The Consumer Data Right (CDR), sometimes called Open Energy, is a regulatory regime that the federal government has introduced to give electricity energy consumers greater transparency around energy usage and costs. By allowing eligible providers access to your energy data, the CDR enables you to make informed decisions about your energy service by giving you the power to compare the market and get a more detailed understanding of how and when you use energy, empowering you to find the right energy deal for you.

Under the CDR, you can permit AGL to share data with accredited third parties on your behalf. The data that you may share relates to your electricity contract, as well as information about you, your accounts and billing arrangements, as set out in more detail under 'What data is available?'

Is my data safe?

There are strict protocols that apply to both the collection of CDR data and subsequent use of that data under the Competition and Consumer Act, and the CDR Rules. See https://www.cdr.gov.au/what-is-cdr for more details about the CDR and how it works.

To request access to your data through third parties, they must be accredited by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). They have set strict accreditation criteria and privacy and information security standards. The privacy of CDR data is also regulated by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). See 'Your privacy is important to us' below for more detail. 

3. About this policy

This policy describes how AGL manages your CDR data and your relevant rights under the CDR laws, including your rights to access and correct your CDR data, or make a complaint, if needed.

Importantly, this policy does not govern how AGL manages your personal information generally. Rather, our Privacy Policy continues to govern how your personal information is managed by AGL outside of the CDR.

We review our CDR policy at least annually and when our practices or applicable laws or regulations change. You can always find the most up-to-date version on our website, and you can ask us to send you a paper or electronic copy of the latest version at no charge. 

You can also provide any feedback about this policy, or how we apply this policy, by contacting us in writing or by phone - see 'Contact Us'.

4. What data is available?

As a data holder under the CDR, we are required to make the following sets of data available for sharing:

• Name and contact details
• Organisation profile and contact details
• Account and plan details
• Concessions and assistance
• Payment preferences
• Billing payments and history
• Electricity connection and meter
• Energy generation and storage
• Electricity usage

Name and contact details can include details of the Account Holder or other individuals associated with the Account Holder's account. See 'Consumer Data Right Customer Relationships' below for more information.

Details about the CDR data that you have authorised us to disclose can be accessed via your online AGL CDR dashboard.

We’ll share the CDR data that we’re required to under the CDR, this is known as 'required consumer data'. We currently do not accept requests for voluntary consumer data that we're not required to provide. We do not accept requests for product data.

Product data requests in the energy sector are fulfilled by the government-operated services Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare.

We don’t charge a fee to share your CDR data, and we share your data only if you provide consent.

A data request made to us may cover data that is collected and held by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), such as electricity usage data or energy generation and storage data.

AEMO is a secondary data holder, which means they cannot directly respond to data requests. Where required, we will request the relevant data from AEMO where the information is needed to respond to a data request.  

6. Consumer Data Right Customer Relationships

Account Holder

An individual who is the Account Holder is the financially responsible person for the account. As the Account Holder you can authorise data sharing as long as the eligibility criteria are met.

Authority to Act

Where a State Trustee, Court Appointed Authority or a person with Power of Attorney has authority to manage an electricity account on the Account Holder’s behalf, the Account Holder or appointed person may assign that individual with an Authority to Act in relation to the account.

An individual with an Authority to Act will be able to authorise data sharing and manage CDR preferences on behalf of the Account Holder, in line with the scope of their authority.

For more information, please see our Help and Support page. To set yourself up or to set up another person with an Authority to Act, please contact us using the details at the end of this policy.

This relationship is only applicable to individuals. A business customer must appoint a Nominated Representative to enable data sharing – see 'For Business Customers' below.

Nominated Representative

An organisation must assign at least one individual as a Nominated Representative for CDR data to be shared with an accredited third party.

AGL is not required, nor authorised to disclose data for an organisation that has not appointed a Nominated Representative.

Even though business customers will have one or more authorised contacts on their AGL account, data cannot be shared under the CDR until at least one of those authorised contacts, or a newly assigned authorised contact, is appointed as a Nominated Representative.

See our Help & Support page for more information on how to appoint a Nominated Representative for your business account.

Secondary User

A Primary Account Holder who is an individual may request an additional individual be allocated to their account for the purpose of sharing data, this is known as a Secondary User. To enable this relationship, the Primary Account Holder must first have the individual assigned to their account as an authorised contact person, this can be done by calling AGL - see 'Contact Us'. The authorised contact will then need to have a Secondary User relationship applied within AGL's system.

The Primary Account Holder can then assign a Secondary User instruction to allow that individual to be a Secondary User and share data from the Primary Account Holder’s account – to do this please see the CDR Help & Support Guide.

7. How to access and manage CDR data

For Residential Accounts

Account Holders

You can only access your CDR data if you have an eligible account. You can access this information by making a data sharing request.

You can log onto your online AGL CDR dashboard, your My Account page or the AGL app to:

• view your data sharing arrangements;
• stop sharing data with third parties; and
• remove your account from a data sharing arrangement.   

Authority to Act

If you have an Authority to Act in relation to an eligible AGL electricity account, you will be permitted to authorise data sharing on behalf of the Account Holder. You can log onto your online AGL CDR dashboard, your My Account or the AGL app to view and manage the data sharing arrangements you have authorised on the Account Holder’s behalf. 

Removal of Authority to Act 

A person with an Authority to Act can have their status revoked by removing them as an authorised contact on the account. This can be done by either the Account Holder or the individual with an Authority to Act through My Account or by contacting us directly. 

This will remove their access to the AGL energy account and their ability to authorise future data sharing from the account. However, you will need to contact us to revoke any existing data sharing arrangements they have authorised, as these will not automatically cease upon removal of the Authority to Act.

Secondary Users  

Once a Secondary User Relationship has been created and a Secondary User Instruction has been assigned to your electricity account(s) they will then be provided with access to their own online AGL CDR dashboard from which they can authorise and manage data sharing. For more information, please see the CDR Help & Support Guide.  

Removal of Secondary Users  

If you are a Primary Account Holder, you may login via your AGL My Account or contact us directly to remove a contact as an Authorised Contact, which will cease that individual from being a Secondary User. 

This will stop their access to the account, and their ability to authorise data sharing. If your Secondary User has any active data-sharing arrangements when you disable their access or remove them from your account, these arrangements will be paused. If the Secondary User’s access is enabled again and the arrangement hasn’t expired, the data sharing will resume.

For Business Accounts

Nominated Representatives

If you are appointed as a Nominated Representative for a business, you can manage data sharing from the business' electricity account. 

You can only access your business’ CDR data if the business has an eligible account. You can access this information by making a data sharing request.

You can log onto the online AGL CDR dashboard, the My Account page or the AGL app (where available) to:

• view data sharing arrangements for the business;
• stop sharing data with third parties; and
• remove a data sharing arrangement from the business.

Removal of Nominated Representative 

If your business account is available in My Account, you may log on or contact us directly to remove an individual as an authorised contact on the account, which will revoke their status as a Nominated Representative for CDR. This will remove their access to the business’ AGL energy account and they will no longer be able to authorise data sharing from the account. 

You will need to contact us to revoke any active data sharing arrangements, as these may not automatically cease upon removal of a Nominated Representative. If the organisation no longer has any assigned Nominated Representatives, all active data sharing arrangements will cease.

If your business account is in AGL for Business, then you will need to call us directly to manage your business’ authorised contacts.

For more information on Nominated Representatives, business eligibility for CDR and how to authorise and manage CDR data sharing arrangements, please see our Help & Support page.

9. Your privacy is important to us

We understand that your privacy is important, and we value your trust. That’s why we protect your information and aim to be clear and open about what we do with it.

When we collect personal information, we follow the obligations set out in the Privacy Act.

We train our staff in how to keep your information safe and secure. We use secure systems and environments to hold your information. 

We will only keep your information for as long as we need it.

If you want to know more about how we handle your personal information at AGL, see our Privacy Policy here.