Ovum Study: Security and Privacy Concerns Threaten Big Data Analysis

Around the world, Internet users are beginning to tire of giving their personal data on the Internet and the big data information collected and monetized is headed for a clash with privacy concerns.

According to tech analyst firm Ovum, netizens around the world begin to realize the amount of personal data collected. The survey conducted in 11 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia, reveals that 68% of Internet users choose the option “do not track”, which rejects the use of cookies and the collection of personal information.

This, according to the consultancy, suggests the imminence of a “black hole” in the Internet economy with hardening of consumer online behavior. In the “gold rush” associated with the Big Data phenomenon, obtaining personal data guaranteed more personalized marketing. The hardening of the attitudes of consumers’ associated with tighter regulations may decrease the flow of personal data.

The privacy policy and the terms and conditions of a website are a very unilateral take-it-or-leave-it contract that most people don’t read and if they did, wouldn’t understand anyway. In legal terms they have given us the deal and we have accepted it because a lot of sites say ‘if you use this site, you have accepted the contract that you haven’t read’, says Mark Little, principal analyst at Ovum.

Consumers are empowering themselves with new tools and services to monitor, control and protect their personal data, and seem to have more and more motivation to use them. It may thus lead to considerable impacts on activities with the targeted advertising, CRM, analysis of large data volumes, and various digital sectors.

The latest scandals and problems about data privacy have fueled consumer concerns about the protection of their personal data. According to a study by Ovum, only 14% of respondents believe in honesty of Internet companies in the use of personal data collected. People became aware of the issue with recent scandals related to privacy, such as the use of mailing lists by mobile app and even news related to constants for the privacy policies of sites like Facebook and Google.

Change the perception of consumers is thus a challenge. Therefore, the consultant believes that organizations with Internet activity should introduce new privacy tools and develop campaigns to promote their reliability in big data processing. Improve transparency about the collection and use of data is a major initiative to build better relationships and thus ensure the survival of the online ecosystem. The trust is a commodity which increasingly represents a sustainable competitive advantage.