Data rights: consumers expect transparency and instant access to their personal information
Personal data is the lifeblood of the modern internet businesses, which can tailor services to our finances, our bodies, our politics and our social lives. Months of lockdown has meant we’ve never been more reliant on the internet for work, shopping, and socializing online, and this has illuminated just how critical digital services are to our lives.
But while the internet has allowed us to stay connected to the world, don’t underestimate how sophisticated consumers are in understanding their right to access and control this personal information. In a comprehensive survey of consumers’ attitudes towards data privacy, an emphatic 98% of consumers surveyed said that data privacy is important, and a further 97% believe they have the right to access their own data. Conducted by Transcend and global research firm Kelton in late June, the Data Privacy Feedback Loop found that 91% of customers feel that businesses who profit from personal data have the responsibility to make that data easy to access.
You can read the full report here.
Many companies have adopted a fairly minimal data privacy policy that’s just enough to meet their compliance obligations. But our results show something far more significant: consumers are hugely positive about data-forward businesses, and are willing to switch to services that make data easy to access and control. Some 93% of consumers said they would actually switch to a service that prioritized data privacy, while 91% would prefer to spend money with a company that guaranteed them access to their data.
With current data request processes often cumbersome, inefficient and hard to understand, clearly businesses need a data policy overhaul if they are to meet both the demands and opportunities created by a new wave of engaged consumers.
Some 93% of consumers said they would actually switch to a service that prioritized data privacy, while 91% would prefer to spend money with a company that guaranteed them access to their data.
Living through a data revolution
The type of personal data held by companies varies hugely, from sleep tracking and biometrics to financial and location data. But whatever the data and whatever the business model, the principles of the right to access remain the same. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in May 2018, followed by similar legislation in Nevada, California and Brazil, which collectively give the 700 million consumers in these territories clear rights of access to their personal information.
Companies are subject to heavy penalties for failing to comply with data requests; in the case of the CCPA, the penalty is up to $750 per user. A typical data breach could target millions of records — such as the March 2020 hack of the Marriott Hotel chain, which exposed the records of 5.2 million customers. That’s a potentially crippling fine, but also a crude and very negative incentive for companies to respect data privacy.
Why would consumers want to access a copy of the personal data a company holds on them? Of the people we spoke to, some 43% said they wanted to delete their information; older consumers were more likely to delete than millennials, who were more interested in updating or rectifying information held about them. Around 65% are curious to see what a company knows about them, and another 65% want to be able to make an informed decision about what can and can’t be retained about them.
We know that people instinctively feel a strong sense of ownership about the data companies collect about them. Though 59% of those surveyed admitted they didn’t feel they knew much about the details of data privacy policy, 88% said they felt frustrated that they had no control over their information, and a further 88% said the process for accessing this data should be easier.
A new era of data rights
Developing data privacy infrastructure for your business is extremely complicated. Companies typically store one person’s information across multiple systems and third parties, from billing and account management to data storage and email. Requests for data are often handled manually, straining resources in multiple departments from legal and engineering to customer service. Some larger firms are developing their own internal, automated systems, but this approach is also time and resource intensive.
Given the complexity, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised how low consumers’ expectations are set: 56% would like instant access, yet three quarters of respondents expected it would take several hours, days or even months to supply. It’s a daunting process, with 34% who didn’t know how to get the process started, and 15% were put off by the difficulty of the process. Of those that have tried to access their data, 94% said it was too complicated, 75% said it was outdated and 38% said it was time consuming.
And to top that off, consumers don’t feel good about companies who won’t instantly comply with data requests. Some 59% said they would regard that as untrustworthy, 44% said it would be unethical and 16% said it was lazy.
Data policy now has a solution
The foundation of a sound data rights policy is that consumers know what a company is tracking so that they can make an informed decision about how that data is used.
Transcend has embraced some extremely complicated engineering challenges to develop a system that can aggregate one person’s data from multiple systems, while keeping it securely encrypted. Patreon was one of our first clients, installing Transcend to provide an instant and easy-to-understand data policy on the site. When it launched, Patreon received more than 700 messages from users thanking the site for making their data easily accessible.
Customers want and appreciate this kind of open and transparent data policy. The survey highlighted that 62% said they trusted data-forward companies more, 60% said they cared more about customers, and 58% said they were more transparent. When asked if offering instant access to their data would make them like a company more, 70% agreed.
We surveyed 1,018 people in the US in late June 2020 in the first of what will be annual studies into changing consumers attitudes to data privacy. Understanding of and concern over data privacy was equal across age and gender. We also found that consumers understand how critical this issue will remain; 94% said data rights will become even more important in the next five years.
So right now, we find ourselves in a unique window of opportunity. Companies have the chance to seize this moment and strategically double down on consumer privacy. We know that consumer demand is there, and now we know the commercial opportunity is there, too.
Read more findings from Transcend’s inaugural Data Privacy Feedback loop here.
