Reimagining Customer Privacy For The Digital Age.

CUSTOMER privacy is becoming an even more intricate challenge, and many regulators around the world are taking unprecedented interest in privacy and establishing new regulations. There are also a growing number of tools and technologies available to monitor and analyze consumer behavior. What should financial institutions do to reimagine privacy in this rapidly evolving digital age—not just from a compliance standpoint, but as a competitive differentiator, to benefit providers and consumers alike?

In our review of large financial institutions’ privacy policies, they often fail to address the complexities of privacy that have emerged, thanks to the latest technological advances. They also don’t account for different types of privacy concerns beyond protection of personal financial data—from location, to thoughts and feelings, to biometric information.

We examine eight tools and technologies that either already are—or will likely become—ubiquitous to determine how likely they are to encroach on privacy concerns. Would investment management clients be okay, for example, with their advisory firm scanning their social media postings, geolocation information, or Web browsing history to determine their interest in socially responsible investments, based on data collected about their charity work or an appearance at a rally protesting fossil fuels? Would credit card customers mind if their banks checked smart wallet spending patterns to detect if they are often at casinos or the racetrack? Should insurers be using drones to see if workers’ compensation claimants are doing roof repairs on their home? Where should that line be drawn?

Bottom line: Financial institutions will need a more robust, expansive, pragmatic, and forward-looking framework to successfully navigate this landscape. Greater transparency beyond boilerplate compliance language will be called for if financial institutions want to offer clear value propositions to consumers in return for greater access to an ever-wider variety of data.