DISCUSSION

Consumer privacy concerns are overblown

May 27, 2014Written by RetailWire Staff

Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is an excerpt of a current article from Commerce Anywhere Blog.

When you think about it, a butler and a stalker may be indistinguishable to an uninformed onlooker. The big difference is in their motivation; the butler is trying to make your life easier.

Consumers say they want better shopping experiences and their spending backs that up. Look at the growth of Amazon. How can Amazon be rated by consumers the number one customer service retailer while Nordstrom is number 10? Has anyone actually ever talked to an Amazon representative? Everything Amazon does is data-driven — data that is collected on its customers to improve the shopping experience.

Every click on the websites we shop is recorded. Every purchase using a credit card is stored. Every interaction with an ATM is videotaped. If you're carrying a mobile phone, you're on the grid. You're kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

I love these surveys that ask shoppers how they feel about tracking their purchases and movements in stores. Who's really going to say they want to be tracked? My privacy isn't something I give away for free if I can help it. People use credit cards even though all their purchases are tracked. They use loyalty cards too. They'll post all day on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and, in some cases, their location is tracked there as well. Why would they do that?

We trade privacy for benefits, quid pro quo. The convenience of my toll-tag outweighs the fact that my drives are recorded. Yeah, I suppose the team at Law and Order can subpoena those records and figure out where I was at the time of the crime, but I'd like to think it's more likely to provide an alibi than a conviction.

I'm all for limiting data sharing with third parties, and I support the "right to be forgotten." I'm concerned about identity theft, and I don't go around advertising my contact information. So I guess I do value my privacy — I just don't think a few beacons in my local stores are a big deal. And I like the result of stores having better assortments, lower prices, and providing offers that interest me.

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