EMEA BUSINESS
Without being fully aware of the potential privacy and security ramifications, consumers have been wilfully providing companies with the asset they most desire: personal data. This has strengthened the hand of big business while reducing the autonomy that consumers have over their data and how it’s used. According to a recent study1, 78% of UK consumers believe that businesses benefit disproportionately from data exchange, while a mere 8% think that consumers benefit more.
The weaponisation of personal data: how consumers can regain control
Otherwise known as the ‘weaponisation of data,’ a term first coined by Apple CEO Tim Cook, corporations store and share personal consumer information with one another to increase convenience, drive sales and boost profits, often at the expense of consumers’ privacy rights. Knowingly or unknowingly we consumers have been complicit in this erosion of our personal privacy and security. But when we rely so heavily, and often unconsciously, on the convenience that companies and social networks provide in storing our data and validating our identities, how do we go about regaining control? The issue of convenience culture The key problem is that convenience has become customary in our consumer culture. Not simply do we want every good and service to be at our fingertips, we unconsciously expect it. In this sense, convenience has become so ingrained in our everyday lives and psyche that we don’t take time to consider the potential costs attached to it. Social media (SM) networks and big tech companies don’t endow us with seamless user experiences simply to benefit us; they do so that we place trust in them, and rely upon them, so that in return, we enable them greater and greater access to more and more of our data: our likes, interests, transactions and future desires.
110 | Issue 17
