Do you suffer from data distrust?
With 97 per cent of businesses using data science today, according to KPMG International, it's easy to understand that finding and using the right data and information is critical to making positive corporate decisions. However, not all consumers are honest and many businesses face trawling through a lot of false and inaccurate data in order to find the needle in the haystack.
This insight comes out of a study from UK-based GBG as part of its Trust Economy campaign. This campaign is attempting to get businesses globally to use, source and apply data more transparently. With this thought in mind, it is actually consumers that aren't as honest with data and information as they seem.
How many consumers are providing incorrect data?
According to the study, Germans are the most dishonest when it comes to providing data and information. A significant 71 per cent of those from Germany admitted that they misled businesses in this way.
A considerable 62 per cent of Britons also revealed that they did this.
Australians, on the other hand, were slightly more honest than their European neighbours with only 57 per cent providing false or irrelevant data and information.
Audience profiling from certain age groups is vital depending on your scope or target market. Nonetheless, there is a clear discourse when it comes to this behaviour between demographics. GBG revealed that 81 per cent of 18-24 year olds offer the wrong information, while just 59 per cent of over 65s do the same thing.
GBG CEO Richard Law revealed that only 10 per cent of consumers believe providing personal information will actually benefit them in the long term. In fact, data distrust is hurting businesses.
"Data distrust is coming at a cost to businesses. Data is the fuel of the digital economy, and if there's not enough or if it's of poor quality, businesses will not survive," he said.
"People have, quite rightly, placed a bounty on this information - whether it's their name, location, items bought during the weekly shop, or even biometrics - because it's their personal property. Businesses must treat it as such."
Why are consumers giving businesses incorrect information?
As mentioned above, many consumers don't see the benefit of providing data to businesses. However, there is a number of other reasons that would be of interest to any enterprise collecting data and analytics.
A total of 83 per cent of consumers are concerned about information sharing and selling, while 73 per cent are worried about "unsolicited contact" and 67 per cent believe brands aren't open enough to deserve this insight.
What can businesses do to address this issue?
As the digital economy continues to ramp, data and analytics are only going to play a larger role in business growth and development. This means if consumers provide false information, enterprises will suffer poorer performances, fail to build trusting relationships with customers and produce below-par service deliveries.
Mr Law believes that the buck stops with businesses themselves and they need to change the way that data is collected. He stated that only data that is required should be mined.
"The value exchange must be crystal clear and businesses need to be open and transparent about why they are asking for the information, how they'll use it and the value they'll give back to the customer," he concluded.
Want to know how you can improve the quality of your data?
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