The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has published a new guide to ease public concerns about the use of personal data for commercial purposes.

“The data revolution is one of the defining characteristics of our fast-changing world,” ABI Director-General Huw Evans said.

“This new consumer guide demonstrates how seriously insurers and long-term savings providers take their responsibilities.”

Personal data is treated “safely, securely and confidentially”, according to the guide, titled How Data Makes Insurance Work Better For You.

It says personal data helps raise the quality of products and services, and insurers will only retain portions of information that are relevant.

“The digital world will affect all industries, but insurance in particular is ripe with exciting areas for transformation,” the guide says.

“We have explored some of the ways in which that transformation may happen, but it is an unpredictable world out there and the possibilities are endless.

“Only one thing is certain – data will be crucial to any change, and using that data requires a relationship built on trust between customers and insurers.”

The guide was announced earlier this month at the ABI Data Conference in London, which discussed the impact of Big Data.

There is no such guide in Australia, and the Insurance Council of Australia did not directly respond when insuranceNEWS.com.au asked if it plans to work on one.

“Australia has very robust privacy laws with strict obligations on corporate enterprises, including insurance providers, regarding the management of personal data,” GM Communications and Media Relations Campbell Fuller said.

The ABI says about 90% of the world’s data has been generated in the past two years, and more than 5.5 billion searches are made daily on Google compared with 10,000 in 1998, when the search engine started operations.