Privacy Paranoia

Data breaches and an increasing focus on the many ways our behavior is now tracked on and offline is leading to a new global sense of paranoia about what governments and brands know about us, and how they might use this so-called “big data” in illicit ways.

About This Trend:

Increased connectivity means that there are more ways to take advantage of the masses of data being stored online. People know that their activity is being accumulated, tracked, and analyzed so that they can be fed marketing messages – you know when you see an ad for a ski resort when you happened to be talking about planning a trip with your friends?

While customized ads can be convenient in some ways (if a brand knows what I want, doesn’t that make life easier for me?), consumers are people, and people like to think their online (and offline) activity is private. To that end, more people are seeking products that help them protect their privacy. Across industries, businesses today must make it clear to their consumers that their data and privacy will not be compromised, and take specific actions to prove it.