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10/24/11

What your business needs to know about privacy

By the time you’ve even started reading this, a computer somewhere has tracked your computer network’s Internet Protocol address. An even smarter piece of software has likely tracked your particular computer. And, depending on how conspiratorial you’d like to get, another computer somewhere has added the IntelliSites website to ones you’ve recently visited so it can make an accurate profile of your online habits to eventually sell to an advertiser.

With so many people sharing unflattering photos, personal details of their life, their locations and more all the time, expectations of privacy — especially online — have shifted.

The McCann Worldgroup recently released a study called The Truth About Privacy: What every marketer who handles consumer data should know.

The survey, which included thousands of people from around the world, called privacy a major opportunity for marketers.

A majority of those polled said companies will earn their trust if those companies don’t give third parties consumers’ personal information like e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

If data is being given out, why? Consumers say they are likely to trust a brand, even if it uses data, but only if that brand tells consumers exactly how it’s being used.

Consumers rated shopping data as the type of data they were most willing to share, according to the study.

Consumers say they trust banks and credit card companies most to keep their personal data secret. Security is the reason, according to McCann, that a large percentage of Americans trust a particular bank.

Have a question about the security of your website? Ask the experts at IntelliSites Web Design today.