The mass of data that each of us creates each day as part of our ever-growing digital footprint shows no signs of slowing.
That’s exciting news, as this data has infinite power, when harnessed in the right way, to create new, innovative and potentially life-changing services, across every industry.
But holding or working with data invitably also comes with challenges, most notably around building trust, ethical use, compliance, and storage.
In this vein, the results of PWC’s recent Digital Trust Insight report are fascinating.
This identified what it called ‘data trust pacesetters’, who are showing how to “create and protect value from data”. This is a distinct group of leaders pursing enhanced data strategies, working to create trust and build collaboration opportunities. Crucially, they view regulations – such as Europe’s GDPR and the upcoming US California Consumer Privacy Act – as an opportunity rather than a roadblock.
And companies working to maximise data by building new products and services, as well as making business operations smarter and faster, are also seeing improvements in ROI, the report says.
Given previous PWC research found that consumers wanted more transparency and control over their data, there is a clear need for companies to adopt not just a data strategy, but a data trust strategy.
Part of that must be setting out not just how they use data and keep it secure, but how it complies with regulation, and – arguably most crucially – brings benefits direct to the user, not just for the company.
At digi.me, we believe passionately in decentralising data, offering a solution where individuals collate, store and share their data on their own terms.
After all, who better to be a custodian of their own data than the person who created it, and who has most to gain from it being shared on their terms with apps and products they trust and want to help develop, and most to lose from it not being secure?
Trust is hard won, but easily lost. Using 100 per cent private and secure systems such as digi.me allows companies to build better relationships with their customers, based on trust. And these customers can, in turn, share richer, more accurate data back with them.
In a world increasingly built on data, building trust is going to be critical to growth and development. Putting customer privacy over profits is the right thing to do, and one that consumers will reward with their loyalty – and their data.
And, as data continues to make the world go round in 2020, being able to access rich, consented data shared direct from individuals will offer a very distinct advantage indeed. So let us all hail the data trust strategy.