Data Privacy by the Numbers

By John RoseChristine BartonRob Souza, and James Platt

This slideshow can also be viewed on SlideShare.

These slides present results from The Boston Consulting Group’s survey of 10,000 consumers aged 18 and older in developed and developing countries, conducted as part of our larger 2013 Global Consumer Sentiment Survey.

The data show that consumers around the world want similar things. They care about how data about them are used, and Millennials are no less concerned about privacy than other generations of consumers. People around the world also share concerns about the most private types of data and want easy ways to shape the use of that information. Differences remain, however, suggesting that a company's starting point matters. Consumers in developed countries tend to be more concerned about privacy than those in developing countries. And concern is much greater regarding some industries than others.

For global organizations to obtain the greatest access to personal data, consumers need to trust that information about them will be well stewarded, meaning that it will be used for the purposes allowed—and only for those purposes.The data show how companies that excel at creating trust should be able to increase the amount of consumer data they can access by at least five times in most countries. The resulting torrent of newly available data will meaningfully shift market share and accelerate innovation. This is the "The Trust Advantage: How to Win with Big Data."