Pitney Bowes Survey Reveals Consumers’ Willingness To Share Personal Data

In a new survey, Pitney Bowes revealed consumers’ sensitivities and perceptions about personal data and their willingness to share it with companies. The survey outlined four types of data ― transactional, physical, secure and intimate ― and consumers’ attitudes within each. According to the study, transactional data involves consumers’ commonly shared information that is part of a basic transaction, such as subscribing to a web site or mailing list. Few consumers will withhold transactional data from a brand or organization. Many consumers are willing to share their physical data, such as height (22%), home phone number (23%) and weight (24%). Secure data is held more closely, with 36% of consumers unwilling to share their income, and 38% and 40% unwilling to share their mobile phone numbers and credit card data, respectively, according to a company press release.

Marketers should be aware of the sensitivity consumers perceive around data categorized as intimate. A majority (76%) of respondents said political persuasion should not be discussed, while 71% are unwilling to share their religious beliefs.

“Brands would do well to be aware of these consumer perceptions as they collect data across all channels,” said Dan Kohn, VP of Corporate Marketing for Pitney Bowes, Inc. “By honoring consumer sensitivities across these four archetypes of data, brand interactions should hit home and multi-channel marketing metrics may improve dramatically.”