{"id":10938,"date":"2022-02-23T06:59:19","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T05:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesmartcityjournal.cibeles.net\/sin-categoria\/how-to-use-consumer-behaviour-data-to-drive-innovation\/"},"modified":"2022-02-22T19:11:16","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T18:11:16","slug":"how-to-use-consumer-behaviour-data-to-drive-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesmartcityjournal.com\/en\/articles\/how-to-use-consumer-behaviour-data-to-drive-innovation","title":{"rendered":"How to use consumer behaviour data to drive innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camilla Winlo, Head of Data Privacy at Gemserv, discusses consumer data behaviour, and why putting people at the heart of innovation is the key to success in digital feature adoption rates<\/p>\n

Regarding consumer data behaviour, a frequently asked question is \u2013 why do people not use the features innovators create? A 2019 Pendo report1<\/sup> found that software companies invested up to $29.5 bn in features rarely or never used, and that 80% of features in the average software product are hardly ever used.<\/p>\n

There are a number of reasons why feature adoption rates are so low. They may not be widely useful. They may not be easy to find. But they may also not be trusted, and that is the issue we will explore in this report.<\/p>\n

The trust gap in consumer data behaviour<\/h2>\n

In 2018, consumer organisation Which? published its policy paper \u2018Ctrl, Alt or Delete? The Future of Consumer Data\u2019<\/em>, a survey with more than 2,000 UK participants, created to allow adults to understand their attitudes to the way in which their data is used. The survey highlighted that people generally fall into four categories.<\/p>\n

Which? found that:<\/p>\n

\u201c19% of the population are taking considerably more action than others to restrict what data can be observed about them and \u2018dirtying\u2019 their data by putting incorrect information in forms and using separate email addresses for organisations they do not want to receive communications from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c24% of the population are characterised by how much more they take advantage of the shortcuts afforded to them online than others (for example saving their bank details in forms and logging into other services using their social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps surprisingly, Which? noted that \u201cthere is a relative lack of a relationship between attitudes and behaviour.\u201d In other words \u2013 those choosing to lock down their data are not necessarily those who are considered \u2018anxious\u2019 and those who use shortcuts are not necessarily \u2018liberal\u2019.<\/p>\n

Innovators who want to improve feature adoption and consumer data behaviour should take this very seriously. User-centred privacy is an approach that organisations can apply to understand how different groups of users feel about features, address any concerns they may have, and recognise the potential impact of user behaviour such as providing dirty data.<\/p>\n

What is user-centred privacy?<\/h2>\n

User-centred privacy is an approach to design that recognises that different individuals will be affected in different ways by the same processing activity. It is an approach that is at the heart of data protection laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).<\/p>\n

The GDPR requires organisations to behave in certain ways when designing and improving processing activities. It requires them to carry out data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) to analyse the risks to individuals and design controls to mitigate those risks. It gives individuals the right to explain the impact of a processing activity to them, and to prevent the processing taking place or having their data removed from a dataset. It requires organisations to provide user-friendly information to help users understand how and why the organisations want to process their data so that they can make informed choices.<\/p>\n

However, at present few organisations have a mature approach to this. Issues we see include treating DPIAs as a form to fill in just before launch, and after all the design decisions have already been taken. Data Protection Officers (DPOs) rarely have direct access to product and service users, with any focus groups and research typically managed by marketing or customer service teams. Privacy information is provided as a \u2018one size fits all\u2019 notice that is rarely drafted in the brand\u2019s tone of voice and even more rarely takes into consideration the questions users might have about how their personal data is processed.<\/p>\n

By contrast, applying a user-centred privacy approach means improving the project team\u2019s understanding of the user\u2019s hopes and fears in respect of the processing, ensuring that they are addressed throughout the build, to communicate with them in a way that is clear and builds trust. Doing this is not simply a more effective approach to compliance \u2013 it is also likely to improve feature adoption rates.<\/p>\n

Applying a user-centred privacy approach requires project teams to consider four pillars.<\/p>\n

The goal for the user-centred privacy approach is to ensure that users and organisations understand the risks arising from the processing, the choices users want to make, and the controls that need to be available to help them to do that.<\/p>\n

There are two pillars to this approach: information flows and operational delivery.<\/p>\n

Information flows<\/h2>\n

There are two core information flows required for user-centred privacy. First, user insights need to be received by the organisation. Project teams should consider how they can capture user insights. These may be surprising. At a recent Gemserv<\/strong><\/a> webinar discussing user-centred privacy in practice, Philippa Harvey of the Cabinet Office described how she sought user insights from participants at the recent COP26 climate change<\/strong><\/a> conference, to ensure individuals felt safe to participate in person.<\/p>\n

Harvey ran a series of Q&A sessions, and uncovered a range of concerns \u2013 such as fears that Covid tests amounted to providing DNA samples to the government \u2013 that were not anticipated by the project team. She was clear that had she not taken such a structured approach to capturing user insights, participation rates would likely have been lower and therefore the impact of the conference could have been reduced.<\/p>\n

The other core information flow follows naturally from the user insights. Having identified the hopes and concerns of individuals, organisations then need to address them in a transparent manner, so that users can see how their hopes and fears are taken into consideration. This may require more than simply updating the privacy notice, and we would recommend considering how the \u20187 Ps of Marketing\u20192<\/sup> might contribute to a consistent and transparent message. These are:<\/p>\n