Data privacy has become a hot topic in recent years, fuelled by high-profile data breaches, privacy scandals, and growing public awareness. However, myths and misconceptions still abound when it comes to how companies should approach data privacy.
This article debunks five common data privacy myths that marketers often believe, providing clarity on consumers’ attitudes, legal compliance, third-party data use, and more. Properly understanding these myths is the first step toward building meaningful trust with customers through ethical data practices.
While privacy policies and regulations are important, simply checking the compliance box is no longer enough. Consumers demand companies prioritise transparency, choice, and control. As we’ll explore, consent and preference management platforms empower consumers while enabling beneficial personalisation.
By busting these myths, this article aims to advance the data privacy conversation beyond simplistic notions. Let’s dig into the realities all marketers need to know.
Myth 1: Consumers Don’t Care About Data Privacy
The myth that consumers don’t care about data privacy is simply false. Multiple studies have shown that consumers are in fact concerned about how their personal data is collected and used.
A 2021 survey by Cisco found that 78% of respondents worry about how brands are collecting and using their personal data. Additionally, 81% said they won’t do business with a company if they have concerns about their privacy policies.
Research from Pew in 2019 revealed that 79% of US adults say it’s very important for them to be in control of who gets access to their personal data. 61% said current laws providing data privacy protections to consumers are inadequate.
Deloitte’s 2022 Global Privacy Survey found that 47% of consumers have decided against buying a product or service because they had privacy concerns. 40% said they research a brand’s privacy practices before making a purchase.
It’s clear from the data that consumers do care about data privacy and factor it into their purchasing decisions. As marketers and businesses, it’s crucial we recognise this and prioritise building trust through ethical data practices and transparency. Assuming consumers don’t care can severely damage consumer trust and loyalty.
Myth 2: Compliance Takes Priority Over Consumer Trust
While regulatory compliance is crucial, focusing solely on technical and legal requirements can undermine consumer trust. Many companies view privacy through a compliance lens, aiming only to meet minimum standards. But consumers care deeply about how their data is handled. If people don’t trust a company with their data, they will hesitate to share it or avoid the brand entirely.
Research shows that consumers reward transparency and honesty around data practices. A recent survey found that 63% of respondents would stop engaging with a brand online after a data breach. Building real relationships requires open communication about how data is collected, used, and protected. Companies that are transparent engender goodwill and loyalty.
Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose. Even if a company is fully compliant, opaque data practices can make consumers uneasy. Explaining how and why data is used in simple language shows respect for people’s priorities. The most successful companies go beyond legal obligations to champion data privacy and help consumers understand their rights. They prove through words and actions that customer interests are the top priority.
Myth 3: Third-Party Data Leads to More Relevant Ads
It’s often claimed that using third-party data leads to more relevant and personalised ads for consumers. However, this isn’t necessarily true. While third-party data can help target ads, it comes at the expense of consumer privacy.
Here are some of the risks with using third-party data for ad targeting:
- Lack of transparency and consent – Most consumers are unaware of how their data is being collected and used for ad targeting. They haven’t actively consented to this use of their personal data.
- Inaccurate profiling – Third-party data is often used to slot consumers into broad interest and demographic buckets. However, these profiles can be inaccurate or incomplete. Just because someone fits a certain demographic doesn’t mean they have those assumed interests.
- Data breaches – Any time personal data is collected and shared, there’s a risk of breach or misuse. Third-party data exchanges multiply this risk exponentially.
- Discrimination – Ad targeting based on third-party data like demographic, interest, and purchase data can lead to discrimination against protected groups.
- Lack of relevance – While third-party data may improve ad targeting in some cases, relevance and personalization are not guaranteed. Many targeted ads are still off-base and irrelevant.
Rather than relying on third-party data, brands can focus on first-party data like website activity, purchase history, and opt-in preferences to target ads in a privacy-friendly way. They can also look to anonymised contextual targeting based on the content a user is actually viewing. There are less risky paths to relevance than third-party data.
Myth 4: Most Companies Follow Data Privacy Laws
Many consumers assume businesses adhere to data privacy regulations, yet compliance oversights remain common. Data collection frequently exceeds legal guidelines or internal policies. For instance, companies may gather more personal data than required for service delivery. Or they neglect to update legacy systems to comply with newer laws like the CCPA and GDPR.
Some organisations also fail to document data practices, train staff properly, or conduct privacy impact assessments. This makes determining compliance difficult, if not impossible. And even those intending to follow regulations often struggle with implementation in complex IT environments. For these reasons, data practices routinely diverge from legal obligations or public expectations.
Achieving full compliance takes more than just checking regulatory boxes. It demands ongoing diligence to data flows and systems. Plus comprehensive privacy programs and controls. With consumers focused on data protection, businesses must make compliance a top priority. Adhering to both the letter and spirit of privacy laws is key for building trust.
Myth 5: Privacy Policies Ensure Consumer Control
Many companies believe that having a privacy policy ensures consumers are in control of their data. However, privacy policies have limitations in truly empowering consumer control.
- Privacy policies are often long and complex, making it unrealistic for consumers to fully read and understand them. The average privacy policy takes about 10 minutes to read, yet most people spend less than a minute reviewing them.
- Even if consumers read privacy policies, they may not understand all the technical language and legal jargon. This makes it hard for consumers to make informed choices.
- Privacy policies generally only describe what types of data a company collects and how they may use it. The policies do not give consumers granular controls over specific data collection or uses.
- Companies can change their privacy policies at any time without consumer consent. New uses of data may be retrospectively applied if a privacy policy is updated.
- Privacy policies do not tell consumers which third parties their data is shared with. Some data sharing and selling can occur without being disclosed.
- There is no standard format for privacy policies, making them difficult to compare across companies. Key information may be buried or omitted entirely.
In summary, while privacy policies provide some basic transparency, they do not equate to meaningful consumer control. Companies need to go beyond privacy policies to provide consumers clear choices over data collection and use.
The Role of Consent and Preference Management
In order to build consumer trust and comply with data privacy regulations, organisations need to have a robust system for managing consumer consent and preferences. This allows consumers to easily understand how their data will be used and exercised control over it.
Universal consent and preference management solutions centralize consent and preference management across all consumer touchpoints. This provides a single source of truth for consumer privacy preferences, consent, and legitimate interest.
With a universal consent and preference management system, consumers can access and manage their privacy rights and preferences through an online consumer privacy centre. This allows them to grant consent, exercise data rights like access and deletion, and manage communication and marketing preferences.
Organisations benefit from streamlined consent and preference management workflows that are built for compliance with regulations like the GDPR and CCPA. Pre-configured consent templates make it easy to request, manage, and store consent records. Sophisticated analytics provide visibility into consent coverage and preferences.
Overall, universal consent and preference management plays a critical role in operationalising data privacy. It empowers consumers with control while enabling organizations to build trust through ethical data practices.
OneTrust Universal Consent and Preference Management
OneTrust Universal Consent and Preference Management (UCPM) is an advanced consent and preference management platform that enables organisations to operationalise consumer rights under privacy regulations like the GDPR and CCPA. With UCPM, companies can easily build consent banners, create flexible preference centres, automate consent workflows, and manage individual consent and preferences at scale.
Some key capabilities and benefits of OneTrust UCPM include:
- Consent collection and management – Create customisable consent banners and preference centers to capture consumer consent in compliance with privacy laws. Manage consent statuses, withdrawal, and expiration automatically.
- Centralised preference management – Maintain a central repository of all consumer consent and privacy preferences. Streamline preference management across devices, channels, regions and brands from one platform.
- Automated consent workflows – Configure customisable workflows to automatically renew, withdraw, and expire consumer consent. Reduce liability from outdated or invalid consent.
- Analytics and reporting – Gain visibility into consent metrics like collection rates, opt-in/opt-out status, and more. Generate audit-ready reports for regulators.
- Cross-channel consent – Orchestrate consistent consent collection and preferences across web, mobile apps, IoT devices, call centres and stores.
- Compliance integrations – Integrate with downstream vendors to automatically communicate consumer preferences for compliant data processing.
With robust consent and preference management capabilities, OneTrust UCPM enables organisations to build trust and transparency with customers through ethical data practices. UCPM provides the tools to operationalise data privacy and stay compliant.
Achieving Data Privacy and Consumer Trust
To achieve data privacy and earn consumer trust, companies must find the right balance between legal compliance, transparency, and meeting customer needs. Here are some best practices:
- Make privacy policies easy to understand. Avoid legal jargon, be transparent about data collection practices.
- Allow user choice and control. Implement tools like consent management platforms to give users options over data sharing.
- Limit data collection to what’s absolutely necessary. Don’t collect extraneous user data just because you can.
- Anonymise or pseudonymise data whenever possible. This reduces privacy risks.
- Encrypt data end-to-end. Protect user data throughout its lifecycle.
- Conduct regular audits and risk assessments. Identify and resolve vulnerabilities proactively.
- Have a data breach response plan. Be ready to notify users and respond effectively if a breach occurs.
- Provide consumers access to their data. Allow users to review and correct personal data held.
- Assign responsibility for privacy to key roles. Have clear internal accountability for privacy practices.
- Continually evaluate new technologies and techniques. Keep current on privacy-preserving innovations.
- Participate in self-regulatory initiatives. Commit to codes of conduct that promote responsible data use.
With the right strategy, companies can meet legal obligations, operate transparently, and satisfy consumer demands – building trust and loyalty over the long term.
Speak with our privacy experts! Get in touch today
Conclusion
Revisiting these common myths makes it clear that the current landscape around data privacy and consumer trust requires fresh thinking. While regulations exist to protect consumers, compliance alone does not ensure adequate transparency or user control.
Myths persist that consumers don’t care much about data privacy, yet surveys consistently show the opposite. Third-party data may seem to enable more relevant ads, but consumers are increasingly concerned about how their data is collected and shared without their knowledge or consent. Privacy policies remain dense, vague documents that fail to provide meaningful notice or choice.
To build consumer trust and data privacy practices that endure, companies must go beyond basic compliance. Proactively putting users first, not algorithms or profits, is key. Allowing consumers to control their data through consent and preference management gives them agency over their digital lives.
Tools like OneTrust Universal Consent help organisations achieve this transparency and user control. With capabilities to gather, store and honour consumer consent choices across channels, OneTrust enables ethical data collection that respects individuals.
The myths around data privacy take old assumptions as truth. But progress depends on questioning long-held beliefs. A modern approach puts people over platforms and consent over coercion. With the right perspective, companies can act beyond compliance to champion data dignity.
