Companies increasingly use consumer data, including personal information, to stay competitive; this includes the capability to analyze their customers' demographics and buying habits, predict future behaviors and business trends, and collect and sell data to third-parties.
Consumers' willingness to share their data centers on trust, however, and 91% of adults believe that they have lost control over how their personal information is collected and used (2014 Pew Research Center). So how do companies effectively manage consumer data while simultaneously building trust? It has been said that you cannot have good privacy without good security. A first step is to build an effective security program while also better understanding what privacy means and how it can be a strategic business enabler in our era of hyper-connectivity and "big data."
