Latin America. Cisco released its 2022 Consumer Privacy Survey, an annual global review of consumer perceptions and behaviors about data privacy.
This year's survey highlights the important need for greater transparency, as consumers say their top priority is for organizations to be clearer about how they use their personal data.
The survey also showed that while consumers theoretically support AI, with 54% willing to share their anonymized data to improve AI products, many have lost trust in organizations due to their use of AI.
81% of respondents this year agree that the way an organization treats personal data is indicative of how it views and respects its customers. This is the highest percentage since we started tracking in 2019.
Consumers are increasingly taking action
In response to the loss of confidence in organizations' ability to protect data, many consumers are acting to better safeguard their data themselves including:
● 76% say they wouldn't buy from a company they don't trust
● 37% indicated that they had changed providers due to data privacy practices.
● 53% say they manage a website's cookie settings before accepting them
● 46% of those who have a listening device at home say they turn it off regularly to protect their privacy.
Disconnect between businesses and consumers when it comes to AI
The constant evolution of technologies makes it difficult for consumers to trust their data to companies. The majority of respondents believe the potential benefits of AI outweigh the risk, provided proper de-identification is done, and 54% are willing to share their anonymized personal data to help improve AI-based products and decision-making.
However, there is a disconnect between businesses and consumers: while 87% of organizations believe they have processes in place to ensure automated decision-making is done according to customer expectations, 60% of respondents expressed concern about how organizations are using their personal data for AI. Powerful steps organizations can take to address this include giving consumers the opportunity to opt out of AI application and explaining how their AI application works.
They want the government to play a primary role
Finally, more than half said national or local government should play the leading role when it comes to protecting consumer data. Many consumers don't trust private companies to be responsible for personal data on their own.
As governments and organizations continue to demand the protection of data transferred outside their national borders, more set data localization requirements, requiring that data be physically stored in the country or region where it was collected. However, the localization of data comes at a price. The Cisco 2022 Data Privacy Benchmark Study reported that 88% of organizations surveyed experience significant additional operational costs due to data localization. Consumers are evenly divided on the value of data localization (41% in favor, 41% against) if it adds costs to the products and services they buy.
Cisco's 2022 Consumer Privacy Survey was anonymized and analyzes responses from 2,600 adults in 12 countries where respondents did not know who was conducting the study and individual respondents were equally unknown to researchers: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
For Cisco survey results, click here.
