Ethical use of data, tech in customers race key to growth
Thursday April 29 2021
A lot of work has been done on the email front to mitigate, reduce and combat spam but it is not enough, given the potential upside of the infraction.
By MBUGUA NJIHIA
Summary
Where businesses get it wrong, is the attempt to short circuit the consumer journey. In a digital mobile-first world, harvesting, purchasing, or generating databases of emails and phone numbers is the start.
In the quest to mop up every shilling from customer wallets, many businesses tend to ignore two key tenets in their interaction with customers and potential leads ‘compliance’ and ‘best practice’.
The panel began by setting out the trends that have pushed data privacy issues to the fore over recent years. These include the growth and fragmentation of data privacy legislation, both in the US and across the world, which has expanded consumer rights, the increased usage of the internet and social media and emergent technologies such as AI and facial recognition. “It’s an incredible time to be in privacy,” noted Jen Mailander, deputy general counsel, data, privacy and cybersecurity, Fannie Mae.
In this landscape, organizations must review their whole data collection process to ensure consumers “own” their privacy, according to Robert Eckman, CISO at Kent State University. “What rights are they giving that data subject as they are collecting it – are they informing them of its legitimate use?” he asked.