One Degree of Trust with My Data

Not all trust is created equal. It’s shaped by history, personal experience, reputation, media commentary and responses to crisis, by the influence of friends, family and social networks, national culture and generational outlook. Trust takes a lifetime to build and a moment to breach, often with long-term or irreparable damage.

In years gone by, corporate scandals might emerge once or twice a year. Headlines around the world would converge on scandals from financial misselling to phone hacking, improprieties among politicians to unauthorized market trading and more. The intent and integrity of public-facing institutions would be brought under scrutiny as an exceptional moment in time.

Yet scandals are now occurring with ever-greater force and pervasiveness. Fake news, hacking, corruption and malfeasance have become a part of everyday life, to the point of being almost inescapable in daily discourse or our morning news and social media digest. Increasingly, scandals have extended far beyond mere political, economic or environmental misdemeanor to something arguably more pertinent and more real to us all: our personal data and a very personal breach of trust. And while data is being touted as an asset, it also has the potential to become a significant liability, if not handled in the right way.

As technology has permeated seemingly all aspects of our lives, so too have the data trails that accompany it and offer such potential value to the organizations that can harness, decipher or capitalize on it. Whereas consumers were once arguably blissfully unaware of the breadth and depth of data available to or held by organizations about them, beyond mere transactions, recent events have given the issue much greater prominence.

Moreover, concerns don’t just reside with the data trails we create as consumers with those organizations and institutions with whom we knowingly impart our information. As companies are increasingly able to purchase our personal information and data from third-party sources, often collected, aggregated and sold without our knowledge or explicit consent, we’re facing a wider set of privacy and regulatory questions. So, should companies be purchasing from third parties at all? If they do, how do they manage permissions and consent with data that wasn’t gifted to them to start with? What are the requirements to inform or disclose the acquisition of such information to consumers? And what do each of these questions mean for the ability to create value and personalized experiences, even with the best and most honorable intents?

We see this as a transparency gap: the difference between the art of what’s possible with data science and analytics, and how much consumers are cognizant of it. Historically, the majority might have been blissfully ignorant about the nature and scope of data about us that institutions, governments and organizations are capturing, mining and analyzing. But now this transparency gap is closing.

In the past, we might have been primarily concerned with the increase in the volume or breadth of our data being created, whereas public focus is now shifting to how much of our data has been digitized, aggregated, tracked and monetized by organizations and governments, without our full knowledge or permission. And as this transparency gap narrows further, and more information enters the public domain, companies are at risk of increased exposure and vulnerability.

To learn more about reaching your future customer, download the complete report, Me, My Life, My Wallet.