Consumers want more transparency on how businesses handle their data, new Cisco survey shows

• 76 percent say they would not buy from a company who they do not trust with their data
• 37 percent indicated they had indeed switched providers over data privacy practices
• 53 percent say they manage their cookie settings from a website before accepting
• 46 percent of those with a home listening device say they turn it off regularly to protect their privacy

Disconnect Between Business and Consumers When It Comes to AI

Ever-evolving technologies make it difficult for consumers to trust companies with their data. Most respondents believe the potential benefits of AI outweigh the risk, provided proper de-identification is in place, with 54 percent 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 percent of organizations believe they have processes in place to ensure automated decision-making is done in accordance with customer expectations, 60 percent 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 the AI application and explain how their AI application works.

Desire for Government to Play a Primary Role

Finally, more than half said national or local government should play the primary role when it comes to protecting consumers data. Many consumers do not trust private companies to be responsible with personal data on their own accord.

As governments and organizations continue to demand protections on data transferred outside their national borders, more are putting in place data localization requirements, demanding data to be physically stored in the country or region where it was collected. Yet data localization comes at a price. The Cisco 2022 Data Privacy Benchmark Study reported that 88 percent of surveyed organizations experience significant additional operational costs due to data localization. Consumers are evenly split on the value of data localization (41 percent in favor, 41 percent against) if it adds cost to the products and services they buy.

"We hope that the insights from this survey will motivate organizations to continue to prioritize their customers' desire for security, privacy, and transparency," said Brad Arkin, Cisco Senior Vice President, Chief Security and Trust Officer.

Additional resources: 

• 2022 Cisco Consumer Privacy survey (PDF)
• Infographic
• Cisco Newsroom: A business imperative: building trust around data  
• Blog by Robert Waitman
• 2022 Cisco Data Privacy Benchmark  
• Cisco Trust Center
• Cisco Security Report Series

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*Anonymous survey analyzing the responses of 2,600 adults in 12 countries (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the UK, and the U.S.) where the respondents did not know who was conducting the study and individual respondents were similarly unknown to the researchers. 

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SOURCE Cisco