The Privacy Pivot: Following First-movers in Data Ethics
The most successful brands see the new age of privacy as an opportunity to build innovative products, deliver great experiences and earn the customers’ trust. Edward Snowden says, “I use Signal every day.” The quote by the whistleblower and privacy advocate is highlighted on the website of Signal, an encrypted instant messaging service. The company […]
Topics
The most successful brands see the new age of privacy as an opportunity to build innovative products, deliver great experiences and earn the customers’ trust.
Edward Snowden says, “I use Signal every day.” The quote by the whistleblower and privacy advocate is highlighted on the website of Signal, an encrypted instant messaging service. The company became the poster boy for private messaging in September last year when consumer distrust was perhaps at its peak.
According to a Salesforce survey, 46 per cent of customers feel like they’ve lost control over their data. With attacks on corporate data continuing to proliferate, consumer trust is at an all time low. From January 2018 through June 2019, Akamai recorded more than 61 billion credential stuffing attempts and more than 4 billion web application attacks. Governments are equally concerned about protecting data. In January 2020, PwC released their annual CEO survey where two-thirds of CEOs said they were preparing for a more fractured internet as governments applied new legislation on content, commerce and privacy in the year ahead.
As businesses begin to recognise that they must reform their operations to prioritise data trust, more companies are centralising consumer privacy, data evaluations and efforts to manage the risks of breaches. According to a CMO Council report entitled Exceeding the Requirements of the Trust Economy, 57 per cent believe the most critical demand of the modern customer is data security, privacy and accountability.
Also Read: Marketers, You Cannot Miss This Signal
Louder than words
Since the beginning of 2018, Facebook has been under constant fire over its handling of user privacy. So, in 2019 when Mark Zuckerberg outlined Facebook’s vision and principles around building a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform, it came as no surprise. Facebook’s vision outlined encryption, reducing permanence and secure data storage. It’s critical to note that consumer trust hinges on three pillars; empathy, integrity and execution of a brand’s promises. Brands that make lofty promises but fail to deliver on them will only lose in the end.
In the same year, Amazon announced a slew of privacy updates for its Echo and smart doorbells called Home Mode, managed by its subsidiary Ring. This meant refining its “wake word” software, the feature that is used to command the personal assistant Alexa. The company promised to make it 50 per cent more accurate and decrease the likelihood of customers inadvertently recording themselves. It also provided a mute button that electronically disconnects microphones from Echo, and added the option to opt out of being recorded or deleting past recordings periodically.
Google leads the charge in taking active and innovative steps towards building trust. As the largest collector of user data (Google Maps leads the way among its own products), it seems almost poetic. In a company post, David Temkin, Director of Product Management, Ads Privacy and Trust says, ‘As our industry has strived to deliver relevant ads to consumers across the web, it has created a proliferation of individual user data across thousands of companies, typically gathered through third-party cookies. Unfortunately, this has led to an erosion of trust.’
It goes on to elucidate that if digital advertising doesn’t evolve to address the growing concerns people have about how their personal identity is being used, we stand to risk the future of the free and open web. The action by Chrome to remove support for third-party cookies is a big one. In addition, Google is working on a Privacy Sandbox to build innovations that protect anonymity while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers.
Also Read: How are Industry Leaders Reimagining Marketing in 2021?
Apple even put their commitment to privacy in their tagline. “Some things shouldn’t be shared. iPhone helps keep it that way. Privacy. That’s iPhone.” Last year, Apple rolled out the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, which required users to opt-in to tracking their activity by advertisers and developers within each app on an iPhone. The launch of their iOS 15 brought more privacy control features that could impact brand marketing initiatives and the ad tech ecosystem, like how often applications access the iPhone camera and contacts, the introduction of mail privacy protection, an opt-in VPN-like service that obfuscates internet browsing history, and a privacy dashboard where users can view how apps use their data. Moreover, Apple users are presented with a pop-up box asking permission to offer personalised advertising.
Privacy as an opportunity
Forward-thinking companies can look at innovative ways to drive this privacy prerogative. Various technologies have emerged to address data privacy threats known as Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). Signal’s USP was the fact that the messenger encrypted user identity and stopped Signal from accessing data regarding the sender and recipient of a message. Similarly, US-based PNC Bank piloted a new credit card whose CVV changed every 30 to 60 minutes. The technology that powered the dynamic CVV is called motion code, and was originally developed in 2016 by tech company Idemia. The new cards had a small screen, powered by a lithium battery, which displayed a three-digit number in e-ink. An algorithm determines when to change the code on display. Yet another UK-based bank NatWest piloted a bank card that uses fingerprints instead of PIN numbers.
According to a Deloitte strategy report, companies need to stop looking at privacy as a compliance issue and view it as a core business driver. Of course, it will need to meet regulatory requirements and put stringent plans in place to avoid breaches but companies seeking a competitive advantage in the marketplace must make near-term investments in data privacy protections that will pay off in the long run.
How do they know how much to invest and what the return will be? Companies that adopt valuation models for their data will be able to make the most-informed cost-benefit trade-offs, the report suggests. Data valuation is more challenging than fixed-asset valuation, however, because data can have different values in different commercial contexts, and relatively faster rates of value deterioration. For example, retaining data that is no longer generating value can create increasing exposure for businesses, especially with multinationals.
Also Read: Apple’s Privacy Regulations — Not An Endgame
