Regulators are providing tools to help manage new Consumer Data Right (CDR) needs. 

Australia’s Consumer Data Right scheme is designed to give people more control over data, enabling them to access and share data with accredited third parties to access better deals on everyday products and services.

CDR is an economy-wide reform that is being rolled out sector by sector. 

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has this week launched the Consumer Data Right Sandbox - a free tool that enables existing and potential CDR participants to better test and improve their CDR solutions, reducing time and cost in the process of becoming an active CDR participant or updating their CDR offering.

The CDR Sandbox is a hosted environment that behaves and functions like the actual CDR ecosystem. 

The Sandbox is designed to allow participants to set up their own software solutions and communicate with the existing mock solutions and other participants within a secure testing environment.

“Creating a sandbox to complement our existing mock solutions tools is just one of many steps we are taking to make the process for businesses joining the Consumer Data Right easier and more affordable,” ACCC Commissioner Peter Crone says.

“The CDR sandbox will also help participants improve the effectiveness of their data sharing offerings.

“As the CDR develops, it is important that flexible testing options are available for participants wanting to become active in the Consumer Data Right, so that the ecosystem can expand, and consumers can have more and more choices,” Mr Crone said.

The CDR Sandbox will provide pre-live development support to assist participants’ processes of becoming active, and to assist in improving data quality for data shared between participants. 

The sandbox will also remain available to participants after they become active, to assist them in refining and developing their services and products. 

Other mock solution tools already released by the ACCC include the mock solutions source code available from the Consumer Data Right GitHub, mock solution container images from the Consumer Data Right Docker Hub, and the Conformance Test Suite, which allows participants to test their conformance with the Consumer Data Standards and Consumer Data Right Register design.