Consumer Privacy – Are You Worried Too!

By DigitalScopeData Privacy

The rapid progress of technological advancement has raised numerous concerns, one of which is no other than “consumer privacy”. While consumers do have the safety net led by government initiatives on Data Protection, it is important to understand the depth of the playground to avoid the unnecessary landmines and form opinions of your own.

 

It needs no introduction that design tricks (such as cookies, online behaviour advertising) for collecting consumer data will be continuously introduced with the ultimate aim of financial gains. And not to discount the consumer knowledge, moving from the traditional marketing to digital media marketing, consumers are more and more aware of this new data economy. With that, the consumer voices of new digital and technology demand have never been louder.

 

 

 

 

 

Smart technologies with the capability of integrating real-time tracking with actionable readouts are one of the popular discussions. To provide an example of the advancement in smart technologies, did you know that technology is now available to track real-time electricity usage with the capability of detecting specific activities within each household? The question is, how many of you are comfortable with the idea of strangers having information of when did you last use your washing machine or dishwasher? These electricity signatures can be intrusive and dangerous in the wrong hands. If you are interested to find out more about these connected electronic devices, have a read of McKenna, Richardson and Thomson’s (2012) paper on Smart meter data: Balancing consumer privacy concerns with legitimate applications.

 

Unquestionably, it is in the hands of all players to address the subject of consumer data privacy with the right mindset towards the global digital economy ecosphere. However, with the on-going digital exploration, defining the boundaries of consumer privacy will not get any easier. This is an introductory post and more privacy-related topics will be shared soon.

 

Reference

  • McKenna, E., Richardson, I. and Thomson, M. (2012). Smart meter data: Balancing consumer privacy concerns with legitimate applications. Energy Policy, 41, pp.807–814.

 

Drop us a comment to what you want to read next!

One thought on “Consumer Privacy – Are You Worried Too!”

Comments are closed.