Personal data: river deep, mountain high
09 July 2018

I've just been writing my column for the summer issue of Impact magazine. It’s an increasingly rare experience writing a  communication for a print publication several weeks in advance. There’s a tension between wanting to say something relevant, and the risk that what is topical today will become obsolete and quite possibly inaccurate in the weeks before publication. 

The real time nature of communications that are now the norm may suggest that our individual behaviours are changing just as fast.

Our fundamental needs do not change so fast, such as our desire for privacy. GDPR should be lauded as a much-needed update to data privacy legislation that was created twenty years ago.

Two years ago, the MRS Delphi Group challenged Mark Zuckerberg - our research showed that contrary to his apparent beliefs, privacy did matter to people of all ages. In March this year, the MRS Delphi Group published new research that found that consumers rate data security above every other trust driver including service delivery. So while many of us (and our clients) were tearing out our hair out as the GDPR deadline approached, we all recognise that as advocates of customer-centricity this legislation can only be a good thing.

MRS has worked tirelessly to support our members with GDPR briefings, webinars and advice via the Codeline service. The research industry in particular needs to demonstrate the highest standards when it comes to the personal data supply chain.

Respondents and customers need to see this at every touch point, and be continually reassured that our work is transparent and ethical. It is in this spirit that I have encouraged this society to embrace the data analytics sector so that we can all work together to deliver customer insight at speed and with integrity.

You will hear more on this initiative in the autumn. So while we might be enchanted by the speed of change, we must be careful that we aren’t dragging customers along behind us.

This is one thing I am confident won’t change any time soon.