Do consumers really care about data privacy?




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Placecast conducted a survey using Harris Interactive titled "Alert Shopper III." The survey was focused around data privacy and consumer views on companies dealing with personal consumer data. The results showed that U.S adults are more than twice as likely to trust Amazon with their personal data as they are Facebook. Grocery stores were rated as the most trustworthy in terms of consumer data usage when compared with Facebook, Amazon, Google, and cell phone providers.

Here is the infographic 

The survey showed that 66 percent of U.S. adults who are aware of use of data by  Amazon find Amazon’s use of personal data somewhat to very acceptable versus 33 percent saying the same for Facebook.

More than three-quarters (81%) of U.S. adults who are aware of the use of this data said they were comfortable with a grocery store using their purchase information to deliver coupons tailored to them. Comparatively, just one third U.S. adults who are aware of the use of data by Facebook trust Facebook’s use of profile information to target ads. One outlier in terms of acceptance of Facebook’s use of data occurs among women ages 18 – 34: 52 percent of women who are aware of the use of data by Facebook are comfortable with Facebook’s use of data to target ads. Some of the heaviest users of Facebook fall within this group according to sources like comScore and Nielsen; there may be a correlation between reliance on social networking and acceptance of data usage.

The results of the poll show that nearly two in five (38%) of U.S. adults who are aware of use of data by local merchants are comfortable with merchants sending them local offers on their phones – provided they gave permission. U.S. adults age 18-34 are most receptive to their location information being used by merchants: half (51 percent) stated they are comfortable with their location being used to send them offers from nearby stores, compared to one quarter (27 percent) aged 55 and over. When asked, “How comfortable are you, if at all, about your privacy and the use of your cell phone service provider using location information from your phone, with your permission, to send you local offers?” results for U.S. adults who are aware of this use and at least somewhat comfortable also varied by age....

Comment : yet again more research data to build on depending on your opinion about data.