Privacy is not about laws, privacy is about people
We all know that privacy is important. There are laws written about it, there are articles written about it, and there are entire conferences dedicated to discussing what it means for advertising. But the bulk of the conversation is about details like moving away from cookies (or not), which words to use on your website or in your privacy policy, and increasingly technical topics such as Universal Opt-Out Mechanisms. None of this helps you get a better grip on advertising privacy or helps you make the important decision of what you should spend your limited attention and budget on. So here’s a simple approach that does: the shopping mall test.
Imagine you run into someone at a shopping mall. You don’t know them well. You’re friendly, but not exactly friends. What questions would you be comfortable answering if they asked?
Maybe you just came out of a drugstore. Would you be happy telling them how often you shop there? Which other shops you are going to today? How about all of the shops you regularly visit?
Or maybe they spot a family-sized multivitamin pack peeking out of your shopping bag. Would you answer if they asked how many kids you have? Or what other supplements you’ve bought today? How about if they asked whether you’ve just picked up a prescription or a pregnancy test?
Or say you’re outside a bookshop window looking at the display promoting the latest bestseller. Would you tell them whether you’ve read any of the author’s previous books? How would you feel if, instead, they waited until you looked at a different book and tried to gauge which one you’re more interested in from your expression?
Everyone will answer those questions differently. But you’re either comfortable sharing each piece of information with a relative stranger, or you’re not. You can use this to think about advertising privacy.
Increasingly, much of the knowledge that brands have on their customers is collected digitally, through their website or mobile apps. One of the most important decisions brands need to make is what data to collect. This is directly related to what data a consumer would be willing to share — so the shopping mall test can help you, as a marketer, make those decisions for your brand.
Some data is hugely valuable. For car brands, for example, it’s useful to know what type of car makes sense for someone. How many seats do they need? How much cargo space? Are they going to tow anything? Other data may be more of a “nice to have” — allowing you to personalize emails, or perhaps feeding an AI model for segmenting consumers or predicting outcomes. The value of each data point can be weighed against your comfort in disclosing that information about yourself to someone you run into.
There’s a delicate balance between personalizing experiences — including targeted advertising — and respecting consumer privacy. There’s a lot of data that can make for a more tailored experience — but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. The shopping mall test can guide you here: if the data feels intrusive when imagined in a face-to-face setting, it’s likely too much. The choice of what data to collect will be different for every brand because it’s not only based on what data you want to use, but also on how your consumers think of your brand.
This is a totally different question from whether using particular data is legal, or whether it’s cost-effective. Those are of course important, but they don’t get to the heart of advertising privacy: the relationship and trust between every consumer and your brand is what matters!
Here are some guiding questions inspired by the shopping mall test. Use them to plan and refine your data collection strategy:
- Would I be comfortable asking someone this in a casual setting?
- Does this data serve a purpose that benefits the consumer?
- How would I feel if this information were collected about me?
- Is there a simpler or less invasive way to achieve the same goal?
- What level of personalization will deliver campaign results?
It can be easy to focus on the data points — what we could know about a consumer to help drive marketing outcomes. These questions can help you think about the people behind the data points.
Privacy is, after all, about people.
James Aylett
Learn more about Annalect’s Chief Data Officer, James Aylett, here.