Access and Feeds

Big Data: Businesses that Ignore Privacy Concerns Risk a Crisis of Trust

By Dick Weisinger

Businesses that use Big Data are able to derive significant benefits for their business.  The Boston Consulting Group (BCS) identifies five types of opportunities  that Big Data can provide businesses:

  • New business insights
  • Improvement of core operating processes
  • Faster and better decision making
  • Identifying and Taking Advantage of Changing Value Chains
  • Creation of new Data-Centric businesses

But BCS warns that the use of personal data as part of Big Data analytics can lead to problems.  John Rose, a senior partner at BCS, said that “unlocking value from big data has generated a great deal of buzz in the C-suite.  But often left out of the discussion is how to gain access to the information — much of it sensitive personal data about real people — in the first place.”

BCS estimates that more than 75 percent of Big Data is about people.  The report notes that businesses caught using personal data without having gotten the appropriate permission to do so can face a crisis of trust.  75 percent of global consumers say that the privacy of their personal data is a top issue for them.  Consumers will only volunteer their personal data if they can judge the organization that they provide it to as being a careful stewart of the information.

The BCG report concludes that “without consumer trust, most of the trillions of dollars of social and economic value promised from big data will not be realized.  In fact, we estimate that two-thirds of the total value potential stands to be lost if stakeholders fail to establish a trusted flow of personal data.”

 

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