Could Apple’s latest move with privacy be a game changer?
In its recently launched privacy website, Apple Inc. explicitly says “Your apps play by your rules”. Could this move be yet another game changer for the tech industry? An industry hit with multiple privacy and data violations, maneuvering hard to cope with the data protection regulatory changes across the EU, India, Brazil, Canada and now the Silicon Valley, the heartland of innovative business models that allow personal data to be collected, profiled and sold for billions of dollars.
Only a few months after becoming the first trillion dollar publicly listed US company, Apple’s move (1) to take a proactive stand to protect consumer data is worth noting and following.
Why companies should follow Apple´s example when dealing with personal data?
One could argue that Internet wouldn’t have reached its potential of giving almost anyone unlimited access to services, had it been tightly controlled by privacy watch dogs. Example, without the likes of Google or Facebook, billions would have missed out on the possibility of ubiquitous connectivity with ease and “free” access to the Internet. However, without the benevolence of telecom companies allowing such “free” access and regulators providing “unfair” advantage to these adTech companies, a Google or a Facebook couldn’t possibly have been built.
Instead of backtracking on governance and debating over the various schools of thought, we should focus on the developments behind the scene. The key issue that inevitably will hit the society hard unless measures are taken is the issue of eroding public trust (2, 3) and lack of transparency about the use of personal data. With a data economy shaping up and a plethora of smart devices, connectivity that fuels an ubiquitous growth of IoT, smart cities and the like, consumers are increasingly weary of the surveillance paparazzis emerging around the world. Guaranteed cyber security has proven to be a myth, that even companies with billions of dollars to spend on security measures has failed to adequately protect consumers. This is where Apple’s move to be transparent about the use of their consumer data, giving them the choice, control and power, gains significance. They are taking a clear stance for privacy and data regulation and in the process strengthening their brand, and leapfrogging competition on consumers’ trust ranking.
A recent Harvard Business Review study (4) finds that, organisations can limit the impact from data breach on share price performance by implementing two important privacy-focused practices: First, being transparent about the use of consumer data and second, by giving customers ample control over the use and sharing of their data. Apple, just did both and in doing so, they safeguarded themselves against unwanted share price movements in the case of a future breach. In addition, they are likely to benefit from consumers trusting the brand and potentially buying more Apple products relative to competition. This being said, it can be argued that Apple is an exception, they were never in the business of monetizing data and hence the impact of data regulations emerging world-wide is of lesser significance to their business model.
Looking at the Fortune 500’s, it is only a handful of companies that are in the business of monetising consumer data, and taken an “unfair” advantage of the lack of regulations. As part of their digitisation journey, many companies continue to collect, analyse, acquire and share a large amount of personal data for various purposes other than selling it to third party. The objective is simple and logical (3): when consumer behaviour can be tracked, logged and analysed, their behaviour can be predicted and can be used in a manner that enriches the data economy. If this data can be traded and shared across organisations at ease, this can lead to a even richer data economy where consumers will directly or indirectly benefit. By being transparent about the purposes in the use of personal data and giving consumers a choice to control its data, we can build an Internet based on trust.
This has, from the outset, been the position of iGrant.io. We believe that a fully functioning data economy is built on trust and transparency and that the individual should be in the driver seat when it comes to deciding how their personal data is being used. With iGrant.io we enable trust for organisations while complying to new data regulations, empowering consumers to be in control of their data.
References:
- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/17/apple-launches-new-privacy-website.html, October 2018
- Leveraging GDPR to Become a Trusted Data Steward, The Boston Consulting Group, March 2018
- Data sharing and consent management: Making consumer choice a business opportunity, iGrant.io white paper, June 2018
- A strong privacy policy can save your company millions, Harvard Business Review, Feb 2018
