The new EU “General Data Protection Regulation” (GDPR) has been enacted since the beginning of May, earlier this year. The new regulations caused a wave of trending discussions and news reports in industries across the globe. The questioning of Mark Zuckerberg by the U.S. Congress and later by the European Parliament generated more interest and awareness from the general public in regards to the importance of customers privacy, data privacy,
and data collection.
In this article, I’ll highlight how customer attitudes have changed towards the importance of customers privacy over the years. I’ll also explain why protecting and highlighting customer privacy is an important aspect of today’s marketing techniques.
There are various research papers and reports such as the ones published by DMA, Janrain and PWC. These reports provide a clear statistical overview of what consumers think about data collection, keeping customer data private and the level of trust people have in businesses.
Generally speaking, most people did, in fact, change their view on customer privacy over the last couple of months or year. However, the reports also indicate that most people were already aware of data scandals such as the of Cambridge Analytica.
The long-term view on data collection and privacy has not changed that much from a consumers perspective. Which is quite interesting, considering the large number of recent data breaches such as the one of Yahoo, Equifax, MyFitnessPal and of course the earlier mentioned Cambridge Analytical scandal.
That being said, consumers have little believed in the ability of businesses to handle and protect their data responsibly.
PWC published the following stats in regards to trust in businesses & sensitive information:
67% of consumers believe companies are vulnerable to hacks and cyber attacks
25% of consumers believe most companies handle their sensitive personal data responsibly.
The report also indicates that 87% of the consumers are prepared to move to another business if a company can not be trusted to handle their data responsibly.
As most of you know, privacy statements and terms of service statements on websites in the past were often vague and made little sense to most of us, unless you have a legal background.
With the GDPR enacted and applicable for any company that either handles EU citizen data or offers products or services to EU citizens, must comply with the new regulations.
A survey conducted by Janrain says that 68% of the U.S. citizens would be happy to see a similar law enacted in the U.S. The survey also shows that 42% of the people feel like online businesses do not care about handling customer data securely and properly. This confirms the statistics of PWC, showing that the consumer’s trust in businesses is much lower in comparison to a decade ago.
The data privacy report published by DMA shows that 88% of the consumers say that transparency is one of the most important aspects for businesses to focus on going forward. That means that companies should be very clear about what data is being collected, how it’s collected and for what purposes the data is being used. In essence, the GDPR makes sure that businesses will do exactly that.
Privacy Matters to Your Customers
As shown in the statistics, it’s pretty clear that customers place a lot of value in their privacy. The reports show that customers have a greater awareness of their data than a decade ago. That means that customers are thinking about their privacy when they visit a website, install an application or sign up for a promotion from the marketing department.
It’s incredibly important to understand the change in privacy awareness and use it to your advantage in your marketing campaigns, especially when your competitors lack to do so.
Show Commitment to Protect Data Carefully
The strategy of a marketing campaign should now also be tailored to privacy-minded customers and think of it as an opportunity. There are various steps you can take as a business to show you are committed to protecting customer data to the best of your potential.
By this I don’t mean update your privacy policy but instead provide helpful tips to potential customers; how to safeguard their data and what you are doing to protect it.
For example, tell your customers to use long and complex passwords, never reuse passwords, use two-factor authentication, review privacy settings (and how to do so), provide a VPN connection, SSL protection, and other encryption protection.
Show these in your marketing campaigns to win trust which will eventually lead to higher ROI, increasingly better marketing results and eventually higher profits.
Handle Data Responsibly
If you run a marketing campaign that collects customer data, clearly state how the data is being handled, don’t collect any data you don’t need, provide customers an easy option to opt out and allow the customer the opportunity to select what data they want to provide, and what not.
Your marketing campaigns will be a lot more successful if you gain high trust levels and give customers control over their data. You won’t only retain customers; you’ll also gain new customers and increase brand loyalty.
Bill here from PixelPrivacy.com. My blog is all about making the world of online security accessible to everyone. I pride myself in writing guides that I’m certain even my mom could read! Be sure to head over to my blog if you’re interested in keeping your private information just that: Private!
