Study Reveals Opportunity for Brands to Improve Consumer Data Privacy Education and Communications; Data Collection Remains at the Core of Consumer Trust
75% of brands report greater difficulty building and maintaining trust with their customers post-pandemic, although online shopping is up 63%
Jebbit, the provider of the world’s leading Zero-Party data platform, announced the release of their annual Consumer Data Trust Index (CDTI), a report surveying consumer trust in 100 of the world’s leading traditional, small, and D2C companies. The survey methodology asks adult consumers in the United States to rate, on a scale of one to 10, their level of trust in brands to use their personal data in exchange for more relevant offers, goods and services, and elicits feedback on how much control consumers want over their data and how it is utilized. The recurring study, first published in 2018, indicates consumers’ distrust in major brands continues to increase as many businesses that once held top spots on the consumer trust index have made major shifts down the ranks.
In 2021, data privacy took center stage with the passage of the Data Protection Act of 2021, Google and Apple’s hallmark operating systems privacy changes, and Google’s announcement of their plans to phase-out the use of third-party cookies. This year’s report revealed 71% of consumers surveyed support federal data privacy legislation, yet 30% were unaware that Apple and Google made data privacy changes at all, indicating there’s a huge opportunity for brands to better educate consumers. In fact, 49% of consumers polled stated that data transparency communications, cookie consent banners, and privacy emails make them trust a brand more. The report supports the rise of first-party data and trends like quiz commerce, which has become the leading strategy for brands across the globe to exchange privacy-safe data in a way that builds, rather than erodes, consumer trust.
