Take for example, Amazon. They are upfront and clear about what is being personalised and why, and clearly indicate that their product recommendations are ‘based on what you have viewed or purchased’. Which, I think, has contributed to the general public’s acceptance of personal data being used in this way.
2. Be sensitive.
The damage from getting it wrong can be truly catastrophic. Everyone has a creepy story of being stalked by brands on online. As marketers, we sometimes get so wrapped up in the possibilities that we lose touch with reality and forget what it means to be sensitive to the people we’re trying to connect with.
In a study by PEW Research Centre in the U.S.A this year, participant’s (unsurprisingly) rated health information, phone and email conversations, and details of physical location as being the most sensitive data. Perhaps more interesting was that the least sensitive information was purchasing habits, media preferences and political views.
Think about what you’re selling. For example, if you’re personalising for health rwanda email list 120446 contact leads insurance you may need to think a little more closely about your ethical rule book than you might for say an online retailer.
3. Stick to your purpose.
Fuelling an already shaking reputation when it comes to the ethical use of data, Facebook was slammed in the media earlier this year for their ’emotion experiment‘ in which they altered the content displayed in feeds. Facebook hid emotive words from member news feeds to see the impact it would have on peoples’ reaction to other posts and the posts they created.