Increasingly difficult for brands to get APAC consumers to share personal data: Report

The ability to collect and activate data remains a key competitive lever for brands and the Dentsu Data Consciousness Project report reveals how consumers in the Asia Pacific region feel and respond to brands accessing their data.

Why it matters

Brands will face increasing challenges in incentivising consumers to part with their personal data but people are likely to share their data, including sensitive personal data, in situations where there are specific benefits to be gained or where there would be a positive societal impact.

Key insights

• Two thirds (66%) of respondents expect to be able to decline to share any personal data without compromising on the level of service received.
• Sixty-four percent are happy to share their health data for medical research and 58% are willing to have their carbon footprint tracked to help the fight against climate change.
• Seventy-two percent feel that organisations will need to demonstrate higher standards of ethical behaviour as far as personal data is concerned.
• Nearly three quarters (74%) believe the government needs to play a bigger role in regulating the use of personal data by companies – transparency around why data is being collected is critical to build brand trust.
• For Gen X and Gen Y, discounts on food (in exchange for food delivery history) and travel offers (in exchange for travel history) were among the most valued benefits.
• The findings have direct relevance to multiple industry verticals as respondents were asked about their willingness to share their data in highly specific "micro-contexts”.

Quote

“As consumers become more sentient about data, the onus is on brands to design compelling and fair data-value exchanges. Brands need to address five key variables: the purpose which the collected data will be used for, the benefit to the consumer in exchange for sharing that data, the consumer's level of trust in the brand, how much control the consumer has in determining whether and what to share, and the perceived sensitivity of the data.” – Christine McKinnon, head of business intelligence, dentsu Solutions.

Background

The survey for the report was conducted in Q4 2021 across 14 Asia Pacific countries and interviewed over 20,000 people aged 16-64.