It’s no secret data privacy is important to everyone, but now more than ever consumers are growing aware of how their data privacy impacts their online experience.
In the shadow of Facebook’s data breach and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, consumers are beginning to understand that their personal data is the currency that provides them with the services they use every day.
But how is this shift in awareness going to impact your business?
What data privacy trends can you expect for your business?
Consumers are more cautious about how they share their personal data and who they share it with. It’s up to you to manage how your business interacts with consumers to gain their trust in more ways than one.
According to Forbes, this cautious shift in consumer behavior is expected to change the way organizations function as a whole.
Because privacy is expected among consumers, businesses will need to adjust their practices based on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Companies that aren’t GDPR compliant can expect to lose credibility among their consumers.
What’s more, you’ll need to manage your privacy. Transparency will be required, not optional, to gain consumer trust.
If your privacy policy is too complicated to understand for the average consumer, you’ll want an update. Stick with sentences that are short, clear, and concise. Consumers trust businesses that aren’t hiding anything from them in their word density.
Finally, you can expect consumer data protection to become more complex. This is because of the different classes of protections of consumer data under U.S. law. Until these classifications are simplified, businesses may be challenged to get the information they need.
How do we go about solving the challenges made by privacy regulation?
Fortunately, making changes to your company strategies to support customer data privacy isn’t necessarily complicated.
From a technical standpoint, companies need to integrate their service management systems with their other software applications. Up to 50% of a company’s desired user base will completely adopt new enterprise software.
From there, your business needs to formulate strategies on when to use one-on-one marketing, one-to-many marketing, mass marketing, with specific data permissions.
For instance, mass marketing rarely needs personal data to generate a message to your consumers. At most, your business may need to evaluate metrics.
However, on the opposite end, one-to-one marketing requires a greater understanding of the consumer. Your business will need consent to gain personal information about the consumer.
For this reason, privacy consent is best reserved for one-to-one marketing for when your company expressly needs to target individuals for a specific objective. If you’re unable to access information, make it your objective to find solutions that will help you personalize your message to a slightly larger audience.
When all is said and done, businesses need to embrace the changes that are coming from increased data privacy. By being upfront about your privacy policies and gaining the trust of your consumers, you’ll be more likely to gain customer loyalty compared to your competition.
