Data Privacy - A Balanced View In An Imbalanced World

Just as the case of Cyber Security, the CIA Triad (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability) play a critical role in Data Privacy too. There are some other aspects which too are pertinent like Reliability, Trust, Transparency, and all possible reasonable restrictions on various types of “data processing” to safeguard the human/fundamental rights of the people (“data subjects”) involved, irrespective of whether bound by local or global regulations (with or without penalty).

From the good old days when a dove was used to send across messages, or much later when an open post card was considered an apt mode of communication with a friend or family member miles away, we have come a long way in many ways in an interconnected globalized and flat world where borderlines of fairness are at times subjective and debatable especially when away from the prying eyes of the regulators and law enforcement agencies.

When businesses compete and strive to survive, sustain, and grow amid multiple challenges and constraints, at times they take a view that “all is fair in war and love (and business)”, taking out all types of tools from their arsenal in the process.

And on the other side, with the advances in technology, the user experience expectations have risen multi-fold over time, with options for a host of tools and conveniences, in a cost effective and seamless manner, and more and more features getting added, whether for personal use or business purposes. All this obviously has the potential to open up a pandora’s box of vulnerabilities in many ways.

It is in this backdrop, that we should look at the ongoing heated debate on social media privacy (or the lack of it) including alleged unfair practices by some organisations, being countered by well-funded mega PR exercises across all media forums – print, electronic and online.

There is no free lunch

With a plethora of services available on the internet (most of them free) providing variety of convenient and cost-effective services including email and social media, businesses need ongoing funds to sustain and it’s quite natural that service providers tend to explore ways and means to generate revenue through options other than subscriptions. Not being a philanthropic activity, its unfair to expect otherwise.

Data is the new oil

With powerful data analytical tools able to correlate all the data elements across an interconnected world, there is an immense potential to build a data store and monetize it, collaborating across various enterprises who collate data of different types. This helps provide enhanced customer experiences in a competitive and cost-effective manner. Though multiple data elements maybe needed to come up with a meaningful analysis, each of these in the data ecosystem thus carries a significant scope to monetize especially for advertising /marketing, which no smart businessperson can ignore. This often drives business partnerships and M&A, trying to leverage the full potential for a guaranteed stream of revenue.

My Privacy is None of Your Business, and absence of a “No” is not a “Yes”

Whilst this being the case, there is also an element on how (ethical) business is conducted in such an environment, the norms followed including being fair and transparent. While the active arms of mature democracies armed with strong regulations, take measures to serve as deterrent to companies who try to cross the line (or already did), the ever-alert security/privacy communities also help as watchdogs too.

With an increased awareness on privacy rights and the impact of any breaches (thanks to the various events we see around), organisations which try to take consumers for granted in terms of “implied consent” and "extension of purpose” (especially in geographies with gaps in maturity of privacy regulations) end up risking not only the customer loyalty in the immediate term, but also the brand reputation in the long run, if they are aspiring to be “built to last”. With many countries having a buoyant start-up ecosystem, consumers can have alternate options and can actively switch to them, with multiple recent instances along these lines.

A Balanced Way Forward

While these constraints can very well be applied to businesses, we also need to fairly look at how they can generate revenue while being compliant. That’s where alternate business models could be explored where basic service could be offered free with very minimal features, whereas anything further could be charged as done in any commercially viable model.

With the above approach, we could take a balanced view on adherence to privacy norms (and regulations if present), while ensuring the businesses continue to realize value to the entire spectrum of stakeholders, and not just the customers who are served.

Lets hope and pray that the nations, organisations and individuals who seem to have taken hard positions on both sides of this “privacy divide”, realize the above market dynamics, and not expect a “winner-takes-all” scenario, so that fulfilling business interests on value realization and protecting the privacy rights can go hand-in-hand, not against each other or as either/or.

Some related quotes

Culture eats strategy for breakfast : Peter Drucker

Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching : C.S Lewis

Privacy is not an option, and it shouldn't be the price we accept for just getting on the Internet: Gary Kovacs

Businesses that make consumer privacy a point of competitive differentiation will enjoy greater customer loyalty: Pierre Nanterme

You may please refer an earlier article of mine on privacy here, for my PoV on some general aspects - Data Privacy - Myths Vs Reality - A Primer | LinkedIn