When Conrad Charlton first announced, "This is the Australian Broadcasting Commission," in July 1932, the world of global streaming platforms, social media giants and search engines was, at most, on the fringes of the fevered imagining of science fiction.

Now more and more of us use them, as well as doing our shopping, banking and dating online — all of it enabled by sharing personal data.

When global streamers landed in Australia, they brought a visual multiverse with them, built on what Netflix described as deep personalisation that "allows each member to have a different view", delivering not one version of the platform, but hundreds of millions; one for each person.

Australia's first internet television service was actually ABC iview, which launched in 2008. Described as a convenient catch-up service and created from within existing resources, it was ahead of its time.

Not anymore.

The ABC has a unique place in an increasingly fractured media market. Unbeholden to advertising or subscription dollars, it can take creative risks and prioritise uniquely Australian stories, like hitting the road with the last of the travelling saddlers on Landline, or cave diving under the Nullarbor on Conversations, or investigating aged care on Four Corners, or delivering lifesaving emergency broadcasting on local radio, or launching another band on triple j Unearthed, or spawning a craze for animated Blue Heelers on ABC Kids.

It remains indispensable and trusted, and to ensure it continues to deliver to all Australians wherever they live and however they choose to use it, ABC iview will soon require people to have an ABC account to watch.

This may seem counterintuitive for a commercial-free taxpayer-funded broadcaster, but in its nine decades the ABC has always had to move with the times, recognising changing audience habits. And on this occasion it's hardly an early adopter – commercial media and SBS have already made the move.

In a paper for the Reuters Institute for Journalism, media researcher Nic Newman forecast 2021 as a year of profound and rapid digital change. In the wake of pandemic lockdowns and household isolation, he reported media leaders in his global survey were betting on AI delivering more personalised experiences. His research pointed to publishers racing to match Netflix and Amazon to improve user experience.

Increasingly, Australians expect to pick up where they left off on streaming platforms, they expect to save favourites and receive recommendations, and in this algorithm-enabled world that means asking ABC iview users to share some information about themselves.

So, ABC iview will ask for an email, first name (or pseudonym), year of birth, suburb or postcode, and gender. On gender there will be a "prefer not to say" option.

Head of digital product Joel Brydon said the data points were carefully chosen.

"Providing suburb or postcode doesn't mean users will only get content relevant to their area; year of birth will allow the ABC to better protect those under 15 years from inappropriate content; and the gender question ensures a better understanding of the composition of ABC audiences," he said.

The ABC is bound by the Privacy Act and follows the Australian Privacy Principles on managing personal information. It has a publicly available privacy policy and privacy collection statement setting out the reasons for collecting the information and how it will be protected. People can access any personal information held by the ABC about them by contacting the privacy officer.

The ABC will never sell the data, creating an account is free, and there is no paid advertising on ABC platforms in Australia. And nothing about creating a login changes the editorial independence, integrity, or responsibility of the ABC.

ABC iview won't only rely on recommendation engines and algorithms — human curation will still be involved.

There is an opt out if a person doesn't want some data shared with third parties — like Facebook and Google — to personalise ABC recommendations, or if they don't want ABC marketing emails.

Protecting children is a priority. Users can make sub profiles for kids for safer experiences on ABC platforms. Households can create a single account for use across the ABC online ecosystem if they choose.

The ABC is committed to providing people with more control over other types of personal data too, like browser tracking cookies (what would the redoubtable Conrad Charlton have made of them?). Here is the current cookies policy.

Making the case for personalisation last year, ABC managing director David Anderson warned that global streaming platforms would only grow stronger.

"The danger is that our Australian stories get lost in the mix, or don't get told at all, and that our sense of shared national identity is thereby diminished," he told the National Press Club.

The ABC, like Australia, has adapted and evolved through wars, natural disasters and turbulent political and social change, companion to Australians through the wireless, then television, on websites and, more recently, through voice-enabled smart devices.

Through it all, the ABC's central purpose has endured, informing and entertaining – the connective tissue of the body continent.

Requiring a login on ABC iview, with all the privacy and data protections people expect of the ABC, enables the commercial-free public broadcaster to continue to nurture its relationship with audiences.

And with autonomous cars, voice-activated smart homes, wearable tech, digital personal assistants and who knows what else, coming — that can never be taken for granted.