Posts tagged Consumers
Obama Administration Sides With Consumers In Online Privacy Debate
Feb 23rd
The White House released its “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights In A Networked World” Thursday, outlining key rights and safeguards Americans should expect when they do business online.
The proposal is notable in that it marks the first time the Obama Administration has articulated clear-cut support for consumer privacy protections. While the proposal is voluntary for now, the administration is calling on Congress to draft laws based on the protections outlined in the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights while simultaneously calling on companies to voluntarily comply.
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If Congress chooses to honor the president’s request, it would expand Federal Trade Commission authority over Web companies by writing laws to cover firms and practices not covered by existing federal law. While the report does not mention any companies by name, some points seem clearly aimed at tech-sector heavyweights.
“There have been similar privacy initiatives and legislation introduced in the past few years and each has failed to be enacted into law, including a bill that was introduced by Senators Kerry and McCain,” said White & Case Partner Daren Orzechowski, who focuses on information technology legal matters, including privacy. “While discussing such rights at this time may be of interest for political reasons, it will be interesting to see if meaningful legislation is actually passed.”
In a cover letter to the report, President Barack Obama likened the Consumer Pirvacy Bill of Rights to a set of guidelines that consumers could reasonably expect and companies should agree to work under.
“Privacy protections are critical to maintaining consumer trust in networked technologies. When consumers provide information about themselves–whether it is in the context of an online social network that is open to public view or a transaction involving sensitive personal data–they reasonably expect companies to use this information in ways that are consistent with the surrounding context,” Obama wrote. “Many companies live up to these expectations, but some do not.”
Laws based on the Consumer Bill of Rights would give the Federal Trade Commission greater oversight of online privacy. That could put companies ranging from a start-up using boilerplate privacy policies to behemoths like Facebook under a regulatory spotlight. Among the key points, as outlined in the report’s executive summary:
- Individual Control: Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data companies collect from them and how they use it.
- Transparency: Consumers have a right to easily understandable and accessible information about privacy and security practices.
- Respect for Context: Consumers have a right to expect that companies will collect, use, and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data.
- Security: Consumers have a right to secure and responsible handling of personal data.
- Access and Accuracy: Consumers have a right to access and correct personal data in usable formats, in a manner that is appropriate to the sensitivity of the data and the risk of adverse consequences to consumers if the data is inaccurate.
- Focused Collection: Consumers have a right to reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.
- Accountability: Consumers have a right to have personal data handled by companies with appropriate measures in place to assure they adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.
It’s unlikely that Congress would move to pass such sweeping legislation in an election year, particularly federal legislation that increases government oversight of the private sector. But it does put the Obama administration on-the-record in supporting consumers.
Orzechowski noted that “under current US law, the actual financial exposure for a company that has a privacy related legal violation is, for the most part, not significant. The concerns are more related to public relations and image rather than legal exposure.”
Beyond that, the report sets up a voluntarily framework and seeks input from companies as the White House looks for ways to protect consumer data and personal information.
Other key points in the report:
- The proposal does not allow people to easily escape all Internet tracking. While it does require companies to allow people to opt-in, it won;t cover sites you already have relationships with. In other words, if you already have a Facebook account, it’s up to you to go in and check your privacy settings.
- Companies that volunteer to comply with the guidelines will effectively subject themselves to FTC review. That seems to help the administration circumvent the difficulty of passing such a far-reaching bill.
- The proposals were created in a way to avoid some of the problems the European Union is having with its privacy directive. “”They have this very high-level, broad law that says, ‘protect people’s privacy.’ And what does that mean in practice? No one is exactly sure. And that’s the difficulty that you always face when you try to translate high-level laws into rules,” Justin Brookman, the director for the non-profit civil liberties group Center for Democracy and Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy, told InformationWeek.
“When passing privacy regulation, there has to be a balance that allows for technology growth, while addressing social concerns,” Orzechowski said. “Remember an entire industry, particularly online advertising, developed in an environment created by the government’s election not to aggressively legislate. It would be unfair to completely change the rules and pull the rug out from under such businesses. Individual privacy is very important, but regulation should not cripple the advancements of technology and so a balance is necessary.”
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CONSUMER ALERT: ReputationChanger.com Warns Consumers of Reputation Management … – PR Newswire (press release)
Jan 30th
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CONSUMER ALERT: ReputationChanger.com Warns Consumers of Reputation Management …
PR Newswire (press release) Online reputation management leader, ReputationChanger.com, reveals the murky side of the reputation management industry: Black Hat SEO. Reports of consumers burned by Black Hat SEO tactics are on the rise. NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — When … |
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CONSUMER ALERT: ReputationChanger.com Warns Consumers of Reputation Management … – MarketWatch (press release)
Jan 30th
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CONSUMER ALERT: ReputationChanger.com Warns Consumers of Reputation Management …
MarketWatch (press release) Online reputation management leader, ReputationChanger.com, reveals the murky side of the reputation management industry: Black Hat SEO. Reports of consumers burned by Black Hat SEO tactics are on the rise. NEW YORK, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire via … |
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Simplicity Is Key To Converting Local Consumers To Customers – Search Engine Land
Jan 17th
 Search Engine Land |
Simplicity Is Key To Converting Local Consumers To Customers
Search Engine Land Conversion Rate Optimization (aka CRO) is an essential aspect of good SEO but it tends to be the bigger guys – with bigger budgets – who invest in it and reap the rewards. It's common for local business owners to obsess too much about outward promotion … Advantages of Ethical SEO White Hat Search Engine Optimization for Grand Rapids Businesses |
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87% Of Connected Consumers Prefer Websites & Mobile Sites Over Apps
Jan 16th
Welcome to the connected consumer. This person most likely has a tablet and smartphone, and is constantly connected to their friends via Facebook. Today, more than 60% of 25-34 year-olds (Gen-Y) own a smartphone. One in three online consumers will buy a tablet by 2014. That’s a lot to digest at once, right? A new survey from Zmags investigates the connected consumer and their digital habits.
Only 4% of these consumers use branded apps. Eighty-seven percent prefer to use websites and mobile sites. This is good news for the so-called tablet commerce revolution (can a consumer movement be rightly called a “revolution”? I shudder), which suggests that tablet owners are using tablet-optimized websites like Amazon.com. But this connected consumer is not a Gen-Y. She is…wait for it…a 40-something-year-old woman.
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The survey also cites Facebook as an untapped opportunity: More than 75% of connected consumers are also active Facebook users. We have written before about how Facebook is not and will not become a mall. Even though 50% of consumers are logged into Facebook while shopping on an e-commerce site and 40% are engaged with brands’ fan pages, this doesn’t mean they’ll start shopping on Facebook. Meanwhile, social commerce sites like Fab.com growing quickly, attracting a design-focused audience.
The survey found that 87% of consumers relied on their PCs and laptops for browsing, researching and purchasing. Most consumers shopped on their tablet from the couch or from their smartphone.
According to the survey, a total 52% of connected consumers are women with a mean age of 40 and a household income of approximately $63,000. More than 43% of connected consumers own smartphones, and 16% own a tablet. The connected consumer prefers to shop via a website from a PC/laptop, not for a smartphone app.
The connected consumer is also on Facebook; in fact, 34% of tablet owners who are also connected consumers shop on Facebook from their tablet. This is pretty meaningless though, considering that only 9% of connected consumers visit a website from their tablet.
The Zmags survey is based on a relatively small sample size of 1500 people in the United States. It does not mention anything about their age, race, gender or location.
Image of the typical connected consumer via NutritionBreakThroughs.com.
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Simplicity Is Key To Converting Local Consumers To Customers
Jan 16th
As more local consumers turn to search engines and IYPs to locate good businesses in their area, it’s surprising how many local businesses have not updated their websites or, worse still, don’t have a website at all! The majority of local SEO activities focus on reaching new, potential…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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What Will It Take For Mobile Payments to Be Embraced By Consumers?
Jan 3rd
We may still be a few years away from the mainstream adoption of mobile payments, but that hasn’t stopped a whirlwind of buzz and product development from going on in the space. Some of the biggest players in tech, telecommunications and finance are all working on solutions that will enable people to pay for everyday items using only their phones.
So what’s the hold up? For one, there are technical challenges. Technologies like NFC are not yet ubiquitous in handsets, and smartphone adoption itself is still growing. Few and far between are the retailers who have the infrastructure in place to support accepting payments this way. Another issue is consumer demand and trust. Only 23% would be willing to us their mobile device to pay for things, according to a recent report from KPMG.
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Branding, Privacy and Security are Key
One reason for the lack of public support for mobile payments could be that most consumers outside the tech space are simply not aware of the technology and its capabilities. Another issue, as the KPMG survey outlined, is consumer trust. Many people just aren’t comfortable with the security and privacy implications of using their phone to pay for things. Is the data secure? What if one’s phone is lost or stolen? If you thought losing your phone is a nightmare now, just wait until it’s also your wallet.
The institutions most trusted by consumers to administer mobile payments are, not surprisingly, banks. These are the organizations through which they’ve always managed their money, including via branded smartphone apps. The brand and reputation of any mobile payments service provider is paramount to gaining the trust of consumers, according to 73% of those surveyed. A majority also think disclosure of privacy and security practices is a must.
For as bad of a PR black eye as many banks have received since the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, banks are stuff trusted by consumers to manage their money. Companies like Google are entrusted with a trove of data about our lives, but never before has their brand been so close to the activities contents of our bank accounts. This isn’t to say that the necessary trust can’t be gained, but it’s not a slam dunk.
Driving Public Awareness of Mobile Payments
If marketed and operated properly, programs like Google Wallet can help build consumer confidence in mobile payments. If Apple does in fact include NFC in the iPhone 5 this year, that will help propel the technology toward mainstream consciousness, just as Siri introduced everyday consumers to voice-controlled artificial intelligence (even if Apple’s implementation was not the first of its kind).
These early efforts of Apple, Google, PayPal and financial firms can also fill in another blank: awareness. As people see television commercials espousing mobile payment technology and see it being used more in the wild, there’s no doubt they’ll grow more comfortable with the idea.
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Consumers Beware: $10M lost to cyber crime this holiday season [INFOGRAPHIC]
Dec 19th
F-Secure released an infographic called “Online Shoppers Beware: What’s Lurking in Your Online Holiday Gift Purchase?”. Some interesting data: Top six online retailers – Expected Amazon, but was shocked by a few others 21 Million people will shop from mobile devices 53% of smartphone users will use their device to research – I use my [...]
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Brands Ignore Nearly 50% Of Consumers’ Facebook Posts [Infographic]
Dec 16th
A new study-turned-infographic from Mr Youth suggests that social media interactions influence consumer purchasing tendencies. The data was collected during the three-week period of time leading up to, and including, Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Yet despite glowing percentages about social media users – 65% of users’ recommendations made/received led to a purchase and recommendations by social media users were twice as likely to lead to holiday gift purchases – brands apparently are not responding to consumers on social media sites.
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A slim 36% of social media users trust brands that have a social media presence more than brands that don’t. Facebook recently began testing private messages for pages, which would give brands the opportunity to actually respond to consumers in a private message rather than a public wall post. Only 55% of brands respond to consumers via Facebook.
Brands respond to consumers via Twitter 61% of the time; in this social media space, brands can either @ message in public or send a private, personalized DM. Although, for some reason brands often times think it’s alright to send spammy, non-personalized DMs when a consumer decides to follow them.
This study was done before Twitter launched brand pages as a part of the new-new Twitter.
The MrYouth study also did not include the new-ish Google+ pages, which could eventually trump Facebook pages.
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Survey: 80% of Consumers Want Alternative Payment Methods to Credit Cards Online
Dec 13th
When it comes to mobile payments, how much do you really trust your credit card being attached to your smartphone? Is it secure? Are merchants going to sell your personal information or start sending you piles of junk mail? These are some of the concerns that a new report from Javelin Strategy and Research surfaced this fall during a survey of consumers’ fears of mobile payments and online transactions.
The survey concludes that four out of five consumers would spend more money online if they considered credit cards safer and had payment alternatives. Javelin predicts that an additional $109.8 billion would be spent by offering a “no credit card required” way to pay online and at merchants.
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It is important to note that Javelin’s survey was commissioned by PaymentOne, a direct-to-carrier payments company. PaymentOne has a direct benefit in trying to get consumers’ off credit cards and start paying through their cellphone or cable bills. The survey was conducted in the fall of 2011 and polled more than 2,000 U.S. adults concerning payments preferences.
95% of respondents had mobile phones while only 36% had used that phone to pay for an item, be it an app, game, music or media streaming such as Netflix or Spotify. The top concerns around using credit cards online were privacy related concerning personal data falling into the hands of advertisers, marketers or malicious hackers.
There is a tenant in the payments industry that the more clicks that a user has to make, the less likely they are to make a purchase. These are often referred to as “pain point” or “friction.” Think about why Apple or Amazon do so well. Consumers enter their credit card numbers once and after that it is one-click processing with a password. Both companies have done masterful jobs of taking the friction out of payments.
On the other hand, the results of this survey should definitely be viewed through the lenses of a direct-to-carrier billing company trying to drum up support for its business model and get more online and offline merchants to use carrier billing, especially for smaller purchases. “No one is going to buy a fridge through carrier billing,” a PaymentOne executive said at CTIA in San Diego in October.
Users should think long and hard about storing credit card information on their smart devices. A report surfaced this morning that the Google Wallet leaves some information unencrypted if the device it is on is rooted. In the Android ecosystem there are also security concerns with malware-ridden apps that can theoretically gain root access and steal all information on a device. The Google Wallet sandboxes a lot of that data but as the Javelin survey points out, consumers have their fears regardless of the truth behind the technology.
What are your concerns with mobile payments? Is there a reason to fear using your credit card online or is the survey slanting its findings towards the benefit of its client? Let us know in the comments.
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