50 words for privacy?

If the Eskimo have 50 words for snow, why do we have just the one for privacy? We might need more words to disentangle consumers’ complex relationship with their data.

We have just the one word for privacy, and it takes many forms depending on the context.

On the one hand, I imagine you consider your privacy absolute when you are at home. That’s pretty straight-forward. Celebrities often complain about intrusion, and it’s easy to sympathise – they are people too (some of them anyway).

But when you move into the digital world, the word ‘privacy’ starts to be more fluid. Is your data yours? Is what your data says about you yours? Is data of any use to consumers? Isn’t data only of any use when it has been chopped, dissected and filtered to get the value out of it?

Unless you are a dedicated Luddite, you will leave a data trail behind you wherever you go. Mostly through your phone. But also in other ways, such as your image captured on CCTV.

Putting CCTV aside, let’s consider your phone and the apps on your phone.

Some apps you pay for, some you don’t. Some apps will scour your behaviour for insights into you. This could be to provide a better service, but could it also be to snoop?

This is a common concern of consumers.

Most companies use data to make their marketing and messaging better. But it’s sometimes difficult to make the case for this.

The line between acceptable and unacceptable use of data is, for many consumers, not clear and not even consistent. How these data are managed varies, and how consumers regard their data depends on the situation, the incentives involved and other factors.

But plotting and navigating the shades of meaning between privacy and use of data leaves us struggling for words – what do you call the kind of data privacy that you might hold with your social media provider, or that's held on email, or that's contained in a fitness app?

How these data are managed varies, and how consumers regard the fair use of that data varies. We know this because of our Consumer Attitudes to Privacy research, released in 2012.

We know that consumers fall into three basic categories:

• the pragmatists, who will be happy to share, under the right circumstance;
• the fundamentalists, who are reluctant to share at all; and
• the not concerned, who really don’t care.

We know that if consumers are offered something, they will be more likely to swap that for their data. How this changes this year, we will see.

We also know that if you treat consumers with respect, they will respect you in turn. And this is good for business.

Much has happened since the original report was published in 2012, not least the Edward Snowden revelations.

So to know where your business stands, know how consumers think about privacy. It's important. Learn more in the Consumer Attitudes to Privay report which we will release on 30 June, sponsored by Acxiom.

Even better, come to the launch at the Ham Yard Hotel.

Maybe then we can start thinking about the lexicography of privacy.