Protecting customer privacy and increasing trust

Data privacy is rising up the agenda as consumers become increasingly concerned with how their data is captured and used. In this blog, we explore how a new partnership between VML Netherlands and data privacy experts Ketch will help more brands meet customer demand for better data stewardship.

An efficient and transparent approach to capturing and managing consumer data is no longer just a compliance issue, but key to competitive advantage. This is highlighted by a recent survey by Ketch, which revealed that consumers held an increase in purchase intent of 23% for brands and companies with responsible data practices.

“Data privacy is now up there with sustainability as a key ethical concern when making a purchasing decision, as consumers increasingly recognise the value of their data,” says Russ Howe, EMEA SVP at Ketch. “To grow and retain their customer base, brands across the globe need to incorporate better data stewardship practices as part of the overall customer experience.”

With 83% of consumers in Ketch’s survey reporting to understand the value in sharing data with brands under the right conditions, but 82% concerned about how their data is collected and used, providing consumers with visibility is key to addressing their concerns and gaining permission to use their valuable data.

The four principles of data privacy

Ketch’s experts highlight four key principles behind strong data stewardship:

Data minimisation – only capture the necessary data
Full transparency – provide consumers with visibility of where their data resides and who can access it
Data sharing – let consumers know if and how data will be shared across brands and partners, and limit sharing if requested
Data retention periods – verify how long data needs to be retained and delete it across all systems when this time period is up.

“Balancing all four factors is essential to complying with consumer demands, as well as legislation in many countries,” explains Howe. “But it’s not always straightforward.”

While smaller organisations may struggle with a lack of resources to manually manage data in accordance with requirements, larger enterprises have legacy IT debt to contend with. Over time, consumer data may have been distributed across numerous systems with little centralised knowledge of where data currently resides.

“We’re seeing a growing awareness of data privacy concerns among our customers, but up until now, it’s been difficult for brands to know how to address these challenges,” confirms Robbert van Ooijen, Team Lead and Senior Solution Architect at VML Netherlands. “Addressing consumer requests in line with compliance requirements – for example for their data to be deleted – often requires complex and lengthy processes across legal, data protection, and IT departments, taking up hours of time and effort.”

Simplifying data privacy with integration and automation

VML Netherlands can now help brands simplify, streamline, and automate their approach to managing consumer data, thanks to its new partnership with specialist Ketch. “Our partnership with Ketch will make it easier for brands to integrate better data privacy processes,” explains van Ooijen. “Instead of treating data privacy as a checkbox activity, Ketch’s platform enables a proactive, dynamic approach that puts the customer experience first.”

Founded in San Francisco in year 2020, Ketch is a specialist in automation in the privacy and compliance space. Its ground-breaking platform enables customers to focus on putting customer experience first while legal requirements, such as GDPR, with less effort and expense. Comprised of a set of applications, infrastructure, and APIs, the Ketch solution integrates with more than 250 first- and third-party data systems to provide greater visibility and control of consumer data.

Suitable for SMBs and enterprise organisations across all verticals and geographies, the Ketch data privacy platform now forms a part of VML’s customer experience solutions. “With Ketch, we can offer our customers a straightforward solution to an increasingly complex challenge,” explains van Ooijen. “We can implement, integrate, and configure the platform for our customers, which is kept constantly up-to-date to comply with the latest consumer and legal requirements by the experts at Ketch.”

Through the VML Netherlands and Ketch partnership, brands can now seamlessly incorporate data privacy into their customer experience solutions to help them build trust, drive growth, and boost competitive advantage.

You can read highlights from the Ketch study on consumer perspectives of data privacy, ‘The Person Behind The Data’, here.

Download the full study here.