Ep.3 Does Convenience + Comfort = Value for PII?
How gut feelings might influence the calculation of the value exchange between companies and consumers over personal data
Been thinking quite a bit about personal data in all of its forms lately … about its utility, the battle for access to it, and its evolving role as currency in our modern world.
Take biometric data, for example.
Apple’s latest privacy-focused campaign. (Via Reddit).
Recently, I scanned my palm so that I could use it to pay for groceries at Whole Foods.
The prompt at the register seemed harmless (and cheerful!) enough: “Pay with your palm,” they said.
And Amazon made the process quite simple: I scanned my hand, opened the mobile app, and in two or three clicks I’d linked my payment account to my Amazon account, and given the company permission to connect both sources to the image (or perhaps 3D model?) it now had of my hand.
There was a brief moment though — a split second before I agreed — where I considered whether it was a good choice. And my hesitation was driven by the understanding that there’s a wealth of things that Amazon could potentially do with this new data point.
A little discomfort, for a bit more convenience
To be clear, Amazon can do quite a few things with the variety of data points I already provide, including:
All my purchases (Dating back to 2006).
All of my addresses. (Hello, ZIP+4)
All of the addresses that I’ve sent gifts and packages to. (Friends and family’s ZIP+4 and maybe some contextual search data).
The specific gifts and packages that I’ve sent to others. (More purchase data).
The volume of purchases that have ebbed and flowed in conjunction with changes to my income and lifestyle habits. (Behavioral, contextual and purchase data).
Add in my IP addresses, and the streaming viewership data from Amazon Prime, and you begin to see how incredibly rich and detailed my customer profile with the company might be.
It’s no wonder that Amazon is the “dominant force” in the fast-growing retail media network space — an ad marketplace that’s fueled by e-commerce and purchase data, and poised to eclipse linear TV in terms of spending by 2025.
(Insider analyst Paul Verna dropped that stat during a great panel at the
TVOT SF conference in May).
But back to that split second of hesitation as my hand hovered over the scanner.
At that moment, there was an equation happening in my head — and I think it was a real time calculation of the oft-referenced “value exchange” between myself (as a consumer) and Amazon (as the brand).
“Is the convenience of using my hand to pay, valuable enough to me to give them my biometric data?”
This notion of the value exchange — or the benefits that consumers will get, in exchange for giving an entity access to their data — is often brought up as a concept that brands and publishers need to do a better job of communicating about, both to end users and regulators.
And I would agree, but my Amazon experience made me wonder if we’re not paying enough attention to how intangible and touchy-feely the calculation around this value exchange might be.
Data-driven fuzzy feelings
When I used my palm at Whole Foods, there was this weird, giddy sensation, like … “Oh, this is the future.”
Fast forward to a few days later when I visited my first Amazon Go store.
A travel mishap led to an impromptu overnight stay in Seattle, near UW’s South Lake Union campus. I wanted to grab some water and a few snacks, and I’d heard about the ability to just walk in, essentially be scanned as you shop, and then walk out and receive your bill later. I’d never experienced it, and wanted to try.
It was kind of surreal.
The store was less brightly lit than Whole Foods and felt more like a 7-11. There was a small selection of prepackaged, healthy options near the entrance, along with regular convenience store fare like chips, candy and Cup-a-Soup in the central aisle. And outside of needing to show ID to purchase alcohol, there was absolutely no need for human interaction.
While leaving the store, I had that same “This is the future” feeling — followed perhaps, by an acknowledgement of the value exchange.
The value Amazon provided in this case was both the convenience of shopping and the fuzzy, futuristic feeling. In exchange, I supplied them with new data by opting in to shop freely in the Amazon Go store (and arguably, the biometric data I’d supplied a few weeks ago).
But how long will it take for that futuristic sensation to fade — and when it does, will I still feel like the value Amazon provides is equal to (or greater than) the value it receives from access to my data?
Extreme convenience, but far less comfort
This is the challenge that our industry faces in terms of calculating what the value exchange for personal data usage actually is.
Each user’s individual feelings and life experiences will factor into what ultimately becomes a very personal equation. That equation will likely vary over time, and will likely even be brand-specific — and that’s what makes it difficult to quantify and communicate about (let alone create practical, scalable legislation around).
As another example, take my reticence to engage with Clear.
The identity verification company has an army of polite, uniformed airport sherpas, and every time I’m trying to zoom through security (even with TSA Precheck — but that’s fodder for another column) I am tempted to give them all the personal data they require to usher me to the front of the line.
But I don’t. I haven’t. And the only reason I can give is that something about it doesn’t feel right.
One could argue that as a frequent business traveler, there’s a far better value to be gained by giving Clear my biometric data than Amazon. If I let them scan my eyeball, I will save time, aggravation and lots of energy at the airport.
Clearly, that’s a value exchange.
I’m just not comfortable with it, and that’s the problem.
Clear is also moving into personalized VIP experiences.
I’m also not the only person that’s well-versed in tech, privacy, or even just travel that has reservations about sharing data with Clear — despite the company’s simple, easy-to-read Commitment to Privacy.
Maybe it’s because it somehow feels elitist.
Maybe it’s because I don’t really know the brand.
Or conversely, maybe it’s because I do know Amazon as both a brand and a platform — and the decade-plus long relationship they’ve cultivated makes me more inclined to give them my biometric data, in exchange for a seemingly less valuable convenience than Clear.
Value is in the eye(scan) of the beholder
Whatever it is, this comfort factor is intangible (and likely irrational) — but that’s human, and human behavior is inextricably wound up in all these decisions around commerce, privacy and brokering experiences based on increasingly more intimate forms of data.
Ultimately, the value provided for the usage of all this data — from purchase habits and credit scores, to fingerprint scans and sleep cycles — will be determined by the individual user themselves. (And there will be lots of nuance and intangible, fuzzy feelings incorporated into the process).
Figuring out how to create systems and laws that facilitate those one-to-one calculations in real time, and at scale, is the hurdle our industry and various governments will collectively be trying to clear for years.
Can you join me in Cannes?
I’ll be asking my panelists about this idea of the value exchange in a few weeks at the CIMM Summit on Innovation in Measurement & Currency - Cannes Edition.
On Tuesday, June, 20, I’m moderating a conversation about precision marketing and personalization in a world with (limited) PII, featuring speakers from Telly, Comcast and Disney — and there’s still time to join!
Register here and we can get deeper into the weeds around data collection, customer comfort and privacy over a glass (or two) of rosé.