Commentary

Using Data In Service To The People

Jan. 28 is Data Privacy Day (known in Europe as Data Protection Day), which is observed in the United States, Canada, Israel and 47 European countries. This makes it a perfect time for marketers to examine how their brands use data and technology.

When you think about all the bits and bytes of data used to drive processes, marketing and connections, a people-first design ethos is fundamental. This requires intention, backed by commitment, in the form of operational processes that ensure your use of data and technology is respectful and trustworthy.

The amount of data and the way a brand uses it should be proportional to the value the customer is going to get from the interaction. Customers deserve to have their data used in service to them.

Gartner, in its Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021, calls this people-centricity, saying, “Although the pandemic changed how many people work and interact with organizations, people are still at the center of all business. And they need digitalized processes to function in today’s environment.”

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Trust and loyalty should be at the core of your business strategy and processes. Whether or not people trust your brand, choose your brand, believe in your brand, are loyal to your brand, depends on if you are digitally responsible -- accountable, ethical, safe, and secure. 

Examples of data misuse and harm to consumers are sadly plentiful. Sometimes these occurrences happen because an organization isn’t capable of protecting people and their information. And sometimes these breaches of trust occur because organizations don’t have people in mind at all, focusing only on using data for pure profit.

When these things happen, mistrust skyrockets and new regulations are enacted. The California Consumer Privacy Act went into effect Jan. 1, 2020, followed by the addition of the California Privacy Rights Act in November 2020, because “big data” often feels vague and uncontrolled to lawmakers and their constituents.

Likewise, the European Union’s 2018 General Data Protection Regulation was enacted to enforce standards among data collectors and users. These are examples of symptoms of distrust in the information age and the sense that data collectors are profit-centric, not people-centric. The reality is that in the past year and a half, more privacy regulations have been enacted than in the past 100 years.

If brands want peoples’ trust, they must earn it by using data accountably, transparently and for the benefit of people. Data, like money, roads, cars, agriculture, etc., can be used for good or bad. All these human innovations function within a framework that includes not only innovation, but also accountability.

We need roads, and we need them to be safe; we need food, and we need it to be safe. And we need data to fuel our Digital Age economy, and we need it to be beneficial to individuals. This is digital responsibility. People need to know and trust that their data is being used in service to them. This is what we, as marketers, should carry forward into 2021.

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