The Privacy Paradox: Consumers Aren’t Acting on Increased Privacy Concerns

Javelin Strategy & Research’s annual survey of consumers about their attitudes toward privacy and data collection has revealed an interesting, seemingly contradictory tendency: Consumers, while generally much more concerned about the collection of their personal information and data, are not leaving banks and credit unions in search of better privacy assurance policies.

As this report demonstrates, however, continuing inaction can’t be counted on by financial institutions. Javelin believes that a combination of privacy fatigue and privacy calculus—that is, burnout from the steady drumbeat of data breaches and a subsequent adjustment in what information consumers reveal and how it is revealed—is at the root of this inaction. FIs would be well advised to monitor their customers’ attitudes and align their policies accordingly now rather than suffer attrition later. 

Key questions discussed in this report:

• How are consumers' concerns around privacy and data collection changing?
• Why are consumers more concerned about privacy but less likely to act on those concerns?
• How are customer loyalty, trust and privacy aligning to create opportunity and future concern for financial services?
   

Companies Mentioned:

Apple Pay, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Google Pay, Instagram