A data privacy wake-up call.
The digital revolution has given businesses the ability to develop deep insights into the lives of their customers. Thanks to the widespread adoption of ecommerce, smartphones and social media, companies today routinely know where their customers live, how old they are, where they shop, what they buy and how they pay for it.
To a large degree, consumer have ben okay with this. They know it can make for a better shopping experience, enabling things like quick reordering of favorite items and express checkout with saved payment information. Collecting and using personal customer information also comes with risks, and while data privacy is not a new challenge, consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with, and distrustful of, how companies safeguard their personal data against misuse and theft. Companies must take steps now to keep pace with expectations – or risk losing access to the data that increasingly drives strategy, insights and success.