Privacy, Individualization, and Marketing Communications

Two items in the news recently have focused the debate about privacy and its role in online marketing communications. The first: Google’s plan to move to a unified privacy policy across its services. The second: a very interesting article in the New York Times which discusses the way Target uses behavioral analytics to market pregnancy and baby products by statistically determining when (anonymous) women were likely to be pregnant. Read more about that here.

The Google news has sparked controversy because of the move from individual privacy policies for each service, to a blanked policy that shares information between services.

The NYTimes piece shared how much a large organization can discover about their customers and prospects based upon the union of compiled data and web tracked behaviors. This was highlighted when a 15 year old pregnant girl’s father was outraged that Target was sending his daughter coupons for pregnancy and baby needs –before he even knew she was pregnant –and, perhaps, before she even knew she was pregnant.

Redefining Privacy For a New Age

Perhaps the biggest question posed by these two articles is what exactly does privacy mean in the 21st century?

Both practices were met with some outrage, with Google’s planned changes going so far as to make it to a congressional committee. But what expectation of privacy can consumers reasonably expect in a world where tracking people and behaviors is as easy as adding a single line of code to a website.

A study by Harvard University points out some very troubling statistics. 92% of consumers are worried about how their information will be used. In an effort to maximize our availability of data while at the same time providing transparency into policies and procedures, we’ve created a monster: the standard online privacy policy. A disjointed mess of legalese and loop holes that is designed to look bullet-proof for consumers while being filled with so many exceptions that it might as well not exist.

The other end of the problem is the half-hearted and piecemeal effort by lawmakers to bring some light to online privacy. Legislation like CAN-SPAM has started the process of codifying and standardizing email privacy, but then progress seems to have stopped. Additional guidelines meant to clarify and simplify have come in fits and starts, some originating in Congress, others in various regulatory agencies. None have come close to tackling the problem of a holistic, unified, and simple anti-spam and privacy policy in the US.

Modeling the Future of Privacy

Keeping customers and subscribers in the know and managing their expectations of privacy is key in developing the future of privacy.

Blue sky laws, which regulate the offering and sale of securities to protect against fraud, created a simple model 40 years ago that are relatively straightforward about the risks a specific investment contains. The same is what’s really needed for privacy models. And despite the flack that Google is currently receiving, they’re actually leading the way in re-defining how companies explain privacy and user data. Their Good to Know page clearly defines how they use user data in an easy-to-read format that lacks the legal speak that muddles most policies.

However, until legislators take a lead and develop a competent model of online privacy and anti-spam laws, marketers don’t have a solid template to use to build or revise their own internal privacy policies. This means that marketers have to take the responsibility of managing the privacy expectations of their customers into their own hands.

Keeping Customers In The Know

Be Clear. Oftentimes, customers aren’t aware of the data they’re signing away when they agree to privacy policies. Cut out the legalese and explain your privacy conditions in a clear and concise manner.

Be Upfront. Don’t hide your policies behind the curtain. If you need access to a subscriber or customer’s past behavior data in order to offer them tailored offers in the future, let them know that.

Keep it Cohesive. Keep all of your privacy policy information in one easy to find place. Make it easy to find, and use opt-in methods, rather than opt-out.

Privacy has quickly grown into a large topic for discussion and exploration, and it will turn into a larger concern in the future as marketing becomes even more tailored and personal. Email remains one of the few channels where customers feel their privacy still exists. That’s partly because email users have less expectations of privacy from the email sender because the recipient already knows who they are. It’s also because of the one-on-one relationship that email provides. Because of those factors, it will continue to be a trusted channel of communication.

Until we’re able to better define privacy, it’s important to maintain complete transparency so that marketers can continue to build trust with consumers and offer personalized service without betraying those expectations.