Dive Brief:
- Customers are overwhelmingly concerned about their privacy online and distrustful of companies’ use of customer data, according to a report from Cassie released last week. The consent and preference management platform surveyed 1,000 people from the United States, Canada, the European Union and U.K.
- More than 9 in 10 customers are concerned about the security of their private information. Another 92% believe that companies often prioritize profits over protecting customer data.
- “It all boils down to trust,” David McInerney, commercial manager at Cassie, told CX Dive. “The easiest way of doing that is to be transparent and to offer them that choice” in which data they share.
Dive Insight:
Data collection is essential to customer insights and personalization efforts, but it's crucial that companies protect personal data and establish trust with customers.
The fact that so many customers believe companies are prioritizing profits over their data suggests companies have room for improvement, McInerney said.
“You've got to empower people. If people don't feel they have a choice in things, they're less likely to engage,” he said. “If they don’t trust the company, they will cross the road to a competitor.”
The data backs that up. Nearly 3 in 5 consumers say they prioritize their online data privacy above all else and will forgo online experiences to maintain it, the survey found. More than 4 in 5 say they don’t have enough control over their personal data.
This is in line with other research. A survey from Broadridge Financial found that 4 in 5 customers would like companies to be transparent about how they use personal data, and 2 in 5 will avoid a brand online if they have concerns.
Even so, customers make trade-offs. More than two-thirds of consumers have consented to cookies to view a site despite feeling skeptical, and 2 in 5 say convenience and benefits of online services are of more value than maintaining strict privacy, according to the survey.
Customers still want some level of personalization, too. Nearly half — 48% — say that they opt out of marketing emails that lack personalized content. Americans were 25% more likely than their European counterparts to express this desire for personalization.
But customers increasingly want more control over their personal data, and data privacy laws throughout the U.K., U.S, Canada and Europe are getting stricter in response. Global companies would do well to pay attention to customer data preferences, McInerney said.
“If you have a global footprint, legislation isn’t getting any looser, it’s only getting tighter,” McInerney said.
