DMA report finds growing reluctance among consumers to share data
A report by the Direct Marketing Association has found that fewer people than ever before are willing to share their personal information with companies due to the heightened awareness of identity fraud and due to the loss of public data by the UK Governm
The report, Participation Media 2007; The Consumer Experience of Direct Marketing, found that in 2007, around 70% of people were never happy to give personal information to companies, while 50% of people were willing to give personal information to companies of which they were a customer. Both figures have fallen over the last two years.
The growing reluctance of people volunteering of personal data is likely to make the targeting of DM campaigns all more the difficult for agencies and companies in the future.
Justin Armsworth of Experian said; “Consumers do want messages that are relevant to them, are targeted and personalised so they feel like it is about them as an individual. But on the flip side, they don’t want to share their information with anyone because they are concerned about data protection.
“Perhaps people will be only willing to share their date once they have confidence that organisations are not going to pass it on to third parties, lose it or generally abuse it.”