London, Europe Brief News – Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a considerable number of people have lost their trust in companies and have started to doubt the data collection method used to share their data. A new research study conducted by YouGov and commissioned by Rehab states that the majority of British people consider data collection to be immoral.
Not just this, about 61% of the population claimed to be feeling uncomfortable over the fact that online businesses collect data to get an idea about their online behavior. Another fact to highlight is that in comparison to 2020, about 54% of the additional population claims to feel more conscious of their data sharing online.
On the other hand, 48% of the population claimed to be unaware of businesses gathering their personal information and further selling it to third parties. Though on the brighter side, only 16% claim that they think that data collection help in the satisfaction of their needs.
Cambridge Analytica impact
Especially with the scandal of Cambridge Analytica on how they misused data of individuals made it easier for people to lose trust in companies. Furthermore, concepts like cookies, digital advertising, and tracking have led people to believe that it is a negative aspect of Data collection. Hence, calling this practice ‘immoral.’
Though, people aging from 18-year-olds to 24-year-olds don’t really think it is a negative aspect as they prefer a personalized experience on the internet. And they believe that this personalization can only be achieved by data collection. At first, the percentage figure of this population was 39% which later rose to a staggering 45%.
Further research about data collection
To further back this information, in 2022 Shopify deduced from one of its reports that about 44% of the people prefer personalized content from brands that shows only the relevant information. The research also claims that individuals are most concerned about businesses knowing about their online behaviour which accumulated at 61%, political opinion at 43%, home address 54%, phone numbers 57%, and likes/dislikes summed up to 36%.
Conclusion
The report does feature possibilities for transparent businesses, disclosing that 35% of respondents said they would spend £5 for a model of WhatsApp that guarantees that their data collection would not be disclose to Facebook companies.
And as Rehab Agency Chief Executive Rob Bennett said “Getting it right means pulling technology and marketing together to manage a strategic shift, with absolute transparency on why personal data is collected and how it’s protected”
