Payments, Blockchain, and Consumer Data Privacy: A Fork in the Road

The blockchain technology movement is occurring while consumer privacy regulations are being enacted globally and, at first glance, blockchain technology and consumer privacy appear to be at odds with one another. Two landmark privacy regulations, the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), were driven by consumers’ desire to know how their personal information is collected, used, and stored, as well as their desire to have their data be deleted upon request. Yet, it is precisely the fact that blockchain technology’s structure retains data integrity, making it difficult to delete data, which makes it attractive to development teams.

Deploying new technology like blockchain within the payments ecosystem is a complex process with multiple layers of risk mitigation focused on product portfolio financials and technological readiness. During such a complex process, an area that can be neglected is reputational risk, which impacts product adoption, consumer attrition, and regulatory mandates. However, the payments ecosystem cannot afford to ignore consumer sentiment at this early stage of the faster payments movement. 

This report takes a closer look at why consumer sentiment is a risk in deploying blockchain and provides guidance on how blockchain can meet consumer needs for data protection and privacy.

Key questions discussed in this report:

• How does data privacy and the right for the consumer to request data deletion impact payments?
• Why is consumer sentiment critical to the adoption of blockchain?
• How can blockchain technology be used to enhance data privacy?

Companies Mentioned: Apple, Bank of America, Google, Mastercard

• A random-sample panel of 5,000 respondents conducted online in November 2017. 
• A random-sample panel of 10,375 respondents conducted online in June 2018.