Every year, humans generate a colossal amount of data. According to predictions, “the entire digital universe” could effortlessly surpass 40 zettabytes of data. This number is 40 times more bytes than the documented number of stars. Moreover, people sent 294 billion emails and conducted 5 billion searches daily.
This type of data is the lifeline of digital marketers, who use it to:
- Determine their potential audience.
- Create buyer personas.
- Create SEO strategies.
- Optimize the performance of websites and campaigns.
- Demonstrate the ROI of marketing expenditure.
However, consumers are intelligent enough to be wary of how different brands collect and use their personal information nowadays. According to the latest survey, misuse of personal data was the leading cause of mistrust in the tech industry. Also, another study suggested that E-commerce and website traffic revenue have been greatly affected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), due to the application of the European Union data privacy law.
In the modern world, which is filled with choices, customers who lose trust in one business have the freedom to shop elsewhere. It is essential that to build trust and brand loyalty, brands must make data privacy a fundamental element of their business.
What is data privacy?
Data privacy, also known as information privacy, is the right people have to determine how their personal information is collected, used, stored, and shared with third parties. Sometimes data security and data privacy can be confused or used interchangeably.
Both the concepts are related to each other but serve different purposes. While data privacy ensures that personal information is collected, used, and shared responsibly, data security protects that information from malicious attacks and the exploitation of stolen data for profits.
Why is data privacy necessary?
Currently, most brands understand privacy is an important factor: According to recent research conducted by Forrester, 85% of B2C marketers believe that upholding consumer privacy is necessary for establishing trust. Companies that incorporate data privacy in their marketing strategies derive other Business Values, such as:
- Realization of compliance requirements
- Maintenance and improvement of brand equity
- Support and encouragement to a code of ethics
- Gain of a competitive advantage
- Inspiration and encouragement to innovation
How to protect your customers’ personal data
According to the Forrester Research Report, only 36% of B2C marketers indicated that their privacy practices help build trust with consumers. However, while there is no 100% privacy guarantee for data in our hyper-connected world, organizations can do a lot to minimize inappropriate exposure of personal data and create trust with customers. Some key strategies, include:
- Encourage clients to practice good safety hygiene
Consumers have custody of their own personal data. Organizations should educate customers on essential tips, such as:
- Protect their home Wi-Fi networks and other devices
- Refrain from sharing their personal details excessively on social networks
- Be transparent about data usage
Modern-day shoppers like Generation Z prefer companies that are transparent in the way they collect, use and share personal information. In most cases, these brands ask for consent before utilizing the information. This clearly explains how your data will be used and could even provide customers with anything valuable in exchange for their personal details. It can be a personalized offer according to your identity or just a fun, interactive experience, like a quiz or survey.
Companies can build even more trust by assuring consumers that they will never share or sell the data they collect.
- By using minimal data
Companies can easily minimize privacy risks by using only the data necessary for making transactions. Companies can also use background verification companies to confirm that an individual has the necessary identity attribute to redeem a personalized offer, such as an affiliation with a certain group, for example being an employee of a certain company, or being a student. Most comprehensive verification services don’t need sensitive information like Aadhar number, which is good news.
How Identity Marketing Keeps Your Customer Data Private?
Identity marketing is a modern way of personalization in which companies use personalized offerings to engage consumer groups such as students, teachers, nurses, first responders and corporate employees. In specially created identity marketing campaigns, brands invite these groups to enjoy personalized offers and use an identity marketing platform to confirm user eligibility.
Identity marketing helps companies respect customer privacy because:
- Identity marketing works on consent-based approach
With the help of behavioral marketing, companies collect user data through third party sites. However, in identity marketing, companies adhere to a complete subscription process. For example, Udemy offers employees a special deal on subscription plans, and employees who wish to redeem it have to go through verification of employment.
Such a consent-based approach transforms the brand-consumer data relationship. Develop a precise value exchange on how the data will be used and what consumers will get in return. Moreover, it collects self-delivered consumer information, providing brands like Udemy with high-quality data.
- Uses a privacy approach for data collection
Companies using an identity marketing platform to confirm eligibility for creating personalized offers verify customers in the way the consumer is comfortable with. According to the research, 57% of consumers prefer to be verified using a personalized offer by an independent third party rather than a company’s customer service representative.
In addition, personal data collected in an identity marketing campaign is never shared or sold. As a matter of fact, the identity marketing platform encrypts all the data and puts it through a one-way “hashing” process so that it can never be reused for marketing purposes.
- Requires only basic customer information to verify identities
Generally, data privacy laws broadly define personal information. According to the definition, “personal information incorporates information identifiable to any person, such as, but not limited to, a person’s name, health, education.” This also includes biometric consumer information, online activity and even geolocation data.
Identity marketing promotes data privacy requirements by storing a minimal amount of information and only information. More than two-thirds of consumers are willing to provide personal information, such as their name and email address.
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