Data tracking report 2011

The Data Tracking Study 2011 reveals that data capture is suffering as consumers opt for online anonymity.

Consumers do not understand why their personal information is needed and when using an essential service, buying something or asking for credit, only a minority of consumers say they would be prompted to give their data.

Consumer data and trust
Trust is the most persuasive factor in overcoming such barriers. The majority of consumers will readily give personal information to a trusted brand.

Losing trust is most likely to happen if the consumer has a bad experience. Theft or misuse of personal information can have a major impact, ranging from fraud to identity theft. Misuse of data in marketing is a growing concern – one year ago, one in five consumers mentioned this would cause them to lose trust in a brand. Now, one in four give this as a reason.

Data security breaches
Just over one in five consumers say they have directly experienced a breach of their personal data security. This ranges from a company holding their data contacting them to say there has been a problem, through to important documents being lost or failing to arrive by post.

What marketers can do
Consumers also want to see the benefit of giving their data. Marketing can help achieve this by providing additional value in the form of promotional benefits. However, some of these techniques appear to be less effective than six months ago, with clear privacy policies less persuasive than before.

data_tracking_study_2011.pdf