Most Australians want organisations to be more open about how their personal and customer data is being used, a new report on the nation's online behaviour has found.
Concern about how well organisations manage and protect privacy, and what personal information can be accessed topped the list in Ernst and Young's 2017 Digital Australia: State of the Nation Report, with 81 per cent of respondents wanting greater transparency.
However just over half of the 1551 people surveyed by the corporate consultancy also said they want companies to tailor the content they are offered to reflect their own interests.
The tension between privacy and tailored services detected by EY's report comes as more Australians than ever - 88 per cent - use a smartphone and spend on average 6.8 hours a day using a computer or mobile device.
EY's report, which measures how Australians consume and behave online, found companies are more likely to thrive if relationships with customers are based on "rapport and trust".
EY Oceania's Jenny Young says companies also need to ensure their customers feel like their needs are understood and that they are receiving personalised experiences, products and services.
"The focus needs to be on the individual consumer," she said.
The EY report also assessed the nation's digital infrastructure and found Australia has fallen two spots on the Networked Readiness Index, meaning it is now ranked 18th out of 139 countries and behind economically similar nations.
The index measures how well countries can take advantage of opportunities offered by information and communications technology, by assessing infrastructure, regulations, how prepared businesses and individuals are to use technology, and how much it is used.
"The ability to keep up relative to other countries is an emerging vulnerability (for Australia)," the report said.
KEY FINDINGS IN THE REPORT:
* 46 per cent of urban Australians believe their city is digitally advanced, compared to 21 per cent of people in regional or rural areas
* One in five people believe their cyber security has been compromised in some way in the past year
* 32 per cent of Australians find self-driving cars appealing
* The proportion of Australians using Netflix (24 per cent) is now on par with the proportion using Foxtel (23 per cent)
* Revenue for music streaming services has nearly doubled in Australia in the past year
