For some time, there’s been a tug of war between consumers’ insistence on keeping their personal data private and businesses’ desire to access that data for competitive advantage. But consumers may be softening their stance and, with the right incentive in place, increasingly willing to share. According to a Celent survey of 2,648 consumers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, 77 percent would be willing to share data about themselves under the right circumstances, while only 23 percent are completely resistant to the idea. This, Celent points out, presents plenty of opportunity for insurers to negotiate for the data they need.
Celent analyzed the findings to identify factors that predispose customers towards data sharing. These are represented in the bar graph on the right. The black bar depicts responses from all respondents and serves as a baseline; the other bars show how two additional factors — belonging to a grocery store loyalty program and self-classifying as extremely technically-savvy — generally indicate a greater willingness to share at least some personal data.
