Give Me My Data

Data control is of higher value in my life than ever before. Not only do we have more data to control and access, it's access is important in day to day life. We have our personal data, and our professional or financial data. It seems now that in order to access important financial or account information such as bank accounts and itunes accounts we are sharing more and more personal information. The questions have become more and more invasive for these "security questions". Password management software consolidates the burdens of memorizing passwords, and can place a bandage on the wound that comes from submitting personal information without reciprocation from the services that demand info you might not feel comfortable giving. It does not, however, solve the problem of an increasing sense of entitlement in demanding the divulgence some specific personal information that may be secure, but leaves one feeling a one-sided vulnerability that comes when personal information is shared without reciprocation. My question is, "how do we even begin to change these kinds of invasions without outright boycotting services that require this information in order to continue a business relationship"?

Certainly it is helpful to allow individuals see the data behind products and the story behind the end results. Where the work gets fun is presenting that data to consumers in a digestible way. So that, all of the numbers and information can be easily understood. To me that is the beauty smart and authentic marketing. David Candless, a data journalist/information designer practices seemingly simple methods of sharing incredible amounts of quantitative information in a way that is both, visually easy on a reader and accurate to the hard data. https://www.informationisbeautiful.net/about/

I believe people should have the right to see what information is being gathered about them so that they can see if there is any confidential information like medical information that should be kept private or if anyone is spreading rumors about them so that it makes it hard for them to get a job or a loan. And if they have suffered any ill effects due to these company using this information against people, people should have the right to sue them for privacy violation, and when it comes to repeating false or misleading information on a person--slander!

I would like to hear from David Edelman what he thinks about VRM (vendor relationship management) as a counterpart of CRM. Instead of each company having its own CRM, why not only one VRM where companies can access updated data from consumers according to consumers requirements. I mean, consumers might get good deal if they share their data when, to whom, for how long, what, etc... At this view, consumers would own their data, and they will be able to exchange it with vendors according to consumers own sake. We are right now working in such Cloud Platform at Buybalu, and we believe our solution will change how relationships between vendors and consumers will be in the near future.

In my opinion companies tread privacy as a compliancy issue (license-to-operate) and not as a chance to act in the interest of their clients (license-to-lead). As a result personal service and ensuring privacy are 2 sides of the same coin. The massive gathering of personal data by companies negatively influences the reciprocity in the relationship between company/client and by that the trust and loyalty of clients in the company. Providing access and demonstrating direct benefits to clients is important to rebalance the ‘reciprocity of value’ but might not be enough. Still a company knows exactly what is going on in my house/life! There is an opportunity to make Privacy a USP, like Volvo did with Safety(belts) in 1959. Care about your clients privacy, not with procedures, codes and technologies but by handing over the ownership and control of part of the data to your clients. Companies could make a split in ownership of identity-data (eg name, address, email, etc) and behaviour-data (eg. grocery lists, energy usage). This enables anonymous personal service. The retailer using a loyalty card, collects and owns the behaviour-data where a third party (preferably a consumer cooperation) owns the identity-data. In case of energy data the situation is reverse. The energy company needs identity data and (just) aggregated usage data in order to bill. It will receive the aggregated usage data from the consumer cooperation. The cooperation provides the client insight in detailed personal energy usage data. The energy company has access to anonymous and aggregated usage data for analyzing purposes. Win/win. Clients keep their privacy and receive personal service. Companies increase their customer experience and loyalty and in the end receive higher responses, revenues and retention.