19 April (Lloyd's List) - THE Global Shippers’ Forum and the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (Fiata) have called for improved standards of data protection and confidentiality in digital trading and booking systems.
The two groups have jointly issued a Charter for Protection and Governance of Data in International Trade, which sets out the minimum arrangements for data security and confidentiality that providers and operators of digital booking and trading platforms should adopt and incorporate in their end-user agreements.
“Digitalisation of international trade and transport paperwork offers huge savings and benefits for all parties in the supply chain, but its storage and processing comes with risks of loss, leakage and unauthorised use that could expose commercially sensitive patterns and trends,” said GSF secretary-general James Hookham.
“Our charter sets out reasonable expectations of the protections that should be in place to respect the ownership of the data, protect its confidentiality and guard against unauthorised access and use.”
The charter has been approved by members of both organisations, who said it was the first declaration of rights for platform users in the trade and logistics sector.
“Fiata is committed to enabling the shift of trade from analogue to digital form to increase efficiency and resilience of global supply chains,” said Fiata director-general Stéphane Graber.
“In this journey, interoperability between platforms and their credibility amongst users are critical for success. This requires clear and fair rules on data exchange to protect confidentiality and ensure trust between stakeholders.”
The charter notes that the transition from paper to electronic documentation raises a number of new issues as regards the collection, storage and use of information.
“Compared to the exchange of paper documents, information supplied through a digital trade or transport application or platform can be stored, analysed or processed so as to observe trends and other patterns in the shipments to the potential commercial benefit of other parties,” the charter states.
“It is crucial that there is a framework in place that fosters trust between supply chain stakeholders when sharing data by digital means.”
