Adjusting to a Cookieless World
With much of the worlds of business, economics, media, retail and technology, etc. advancing at a maddening pace, everyone must be prepared to adjust rapidly and very significantly. Not only is maintaining some understanding of these changes necessary but also being able to apply these changes to improve one’s life, grow a business and maximize sales and revenues.
With Google’s pending removal of cookies by 2024, the tug of war between consumers and brands and retailers about personal data privacy is quickly approaching a critical portion of the contest. Twilio’s new The State of Customers study reveals why consumers are digging in their heels.
- 98% expect companies to be more diligent protecting consumer privacy.
- 95% say they must control their data, especially any identifiers.
- 67% think companies should use first-party data for personalization.
- 31% always choose not to use cookies on the Websites they visit.
As is often the case, brands and retailers are hedging their bets. Almost 90% know using first-party data creates better customer interactions, but slightly more than 80% still have third-party data anchoring the end of the rope.
Brands and retailers’ contradictory use of consumer data is still causing consumers to sever their relationships. The Twilio report found slightly more than half (51%) of consumers were unhappy with those relationships during 2022, a five-percentage-point increase from 2021.
The cost of processing customers’ demand for personal data privacy and the six US states with privacy laws is another compelling reason for brands and retailers to stop the tug of war with consumers.
DataGrail’s Privacy Trends 2023 Report indicates the average annual cost to businesses to follow the letter of privacy laws and process one million data subjects (DSRs) was $648,000. A separate Gartner study stated businesses spend approximately $1,524 on average to process just one DSR.
Although only six states either have active privacy laws or will become law during 2023 (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Virginia and Iowa), more than 35 other state legislatures are in the process of passing similar laws.
