Over four in ten Belgians say they are prepared to give up part of their online privacy in exchange for benefits, such as discounts or better service, a privacy survey carried out by the Global Data & Marketing Alliance shows.
Based on input from more than 20,000 respondents in 16 countries – including Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, but also the US, China and India – the researchers found three types of data profiles.
"In Belgium, 42% are data pragmatists," Peter Trap of The Data Agency said in a press release. "These are people who are quite concerned about online privacy, but who are also willing to compromise, case by case, if the service they receive improves in exchange for information."
The other two types were 'data unconcerned' people and 'data fundamentalists'. Those fundamentalists (21% of respondents in Belgium) take a much stronger stand than the pragmatists: "they do not give information, not even in exchange for a better service or product."
The data unconcerned people (25% in Belgium) are the other extreme: "they do not really care about data and privacy," said Trap.
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Across all countries, including Belgium, the latter group of unconcerned people is also increasing most rapidly. "A lot has been said and written about data and privacy, but very often it is based on gut feelings and assumptions," said Trap.
"This study provides hard figures. We see that there is a worldwide shift from data fundamentalists to data unconcerned," he added. "Privacy concerns are certainly not gone, but they are declining."
Still, the researchers found that while people are increasingly less concerned about their data, that does not mean companies can just do what they want with it. "Transparency, keeping their word, building trust and especially not betraying that trust are still very important to consumers," said Burt Riské Trends Business Information.
"Only if they feel comfortable with how companies deal with this will they be willing to share their data," he added.
"Consumers are increasingly aware of the importance and value of their data. They realise that it has become an asset and are increasingly trying to cash in on it, through discounts or other benefits for example."
