Dannie Ghazal

Dannie, what are your thoughts on eliminating the need to work with many companies by creating one centralized data “broker” for all companies to work with?

No one wants to empower the government to be the broker of this data, but a national data pool of sorts would be easier to govern, access and evaluate.

There’s a lot of discussion on the concept of transacting directly on personal data. No surprise, it is not as straightforward as it sounds:

Paying Users for Their Data Would Exacerbate Digital Inequality

Dannie,

This post is great! You made some very interesting points about mass data collection on consumers. I understand that companies I do business with collect shopper data. I do similar things as a marketer on users who interact with websites I manage or email campaigns that we send out.

However, as a consumer I definitely think there needs to be more transparent and consumer-friendly data collection policies. I think that being able to use the product or service while at the same time withholding personal data is hugely important. This will be the key differentiation between data collection and personal data privacies that are consumer friendly and those that are not.

When I download an app or land on website, I know they are tracking me, and I see the privacy policy prompts appear requesting my permission. The rock and a hard place comes into focus when you realize you cannot use some apps or services without enabling 25 pages of legal speak worth of data collection.

That would be amazing if the consent wording consisted of a clear and concise overview of how it’s being used, Dannie. I Think that’s a great idea. Sometimes I’m the one writing terms and conditions and privacy policies for websites, and some templates really cover a lot of bases with theirs. They’re a little different, because the privacy policy is meant to protect the consumer where the terms and conditions are meant to protect the website owner. I’m usually breaking down the basics of what really needs to be communicated to protect both the consumer and the website owner. It often boils down to:
-we run google analytics
-if you give us your info in a form, then we’ll use it to communicate with you but not sell your info
-there are other 3rd party companies we collaborate with, and we can’t control what they’re collecting or doing
-don’t copy our website’s content without our permission or blame us for anything you didn’t like (lol…I wish I could just say that last part).

While it would probably be legally safer to cover even more bases, I also feel like getting way too wordy with it feels more like a trick.

Great post Dannie! At this point, companies are truly collecting and selling data to make a profit, which will, in turn, provide a ROI for the buyer company. It’s a rat race of who can serve the most ads to their target markets, rather than asking themselves “Are we ensuring the protection of this data?” Companies are covering their bases by providing the pages of legal jargon, but also know consumers will glaze over and just agree to it.

Like Dan said, if you don’t allow certain apps to utilize your data, you essentially opt out of using the app. Just like when we receive emails where we have the opportunity to unsubscribe, consumers should have the ability to “unsubscribe” or opt-out of having their data collected.

Great post Dannie!

One would think that since data is so accepted in today’s day and age companies would prioritize how it is collected and how it’s protected. Part of me is excited about the new ios14 and how users have more say in how their data is used and distributed, but part of me wonders if that will still save us from breaches like you shown in your graph above. Like Christina said above, how many people actually read the legal jargon and fully understand what it is we are and are not agreeing to. Or do you think we will see more people with the ios14 opting out? Your graph shows the opposite, so why would Apple make this a feature? I will love to see the outcome of users having more say in how their data is and is not used and how that will affect breaches and data misuse in the future.

Oh man, Dannie, this sounds tough. I don’t know how big or small your team/company is, but it doesn’t sound like there was an actual process or even thought put into place around how to implement and execute. I know in past lives (in my corporation) we’ve had to go through several different layers of red tape, SOW, RFP and all before we could even begin to implement a new system. That being said, it might be worth having a session with your team/company to really take a step back at needs and how best to go about it.

Dannie, I work in real estate as well and I can totally relate to these issues. My company uses Air Table for registering client information, scheduling showings, keeping client data and even for requests for print marketing. We worked with a developer to automate the processes within Air Table on the back-end and it has been somewhat smooth sailing ever since! I would look into this for your company; please reach out to me if you think I can be of any help!

Dannie, I can feel your frustration. I’ve been through website migrations and consolidations. While not quite the same as your experience, it’s very similar. I feel like the best planning in the world cannot catch everything. That’s unfortunate because anytime a discussion comes up about migrations, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one being 100% successful. I agree with you, there is an opportunity here for a better way.

Preach, lol!!! Yes! I actually just performed a software feasiblity software study to adopt software that performs “X” function; a current gap right now. Every software, product or SAAS salesman out there has a solution for our problems. The trick is just fighting through the clutter and noise and get just what we need and makes sense.
Now I think I’m gonna write an article about it, lol!! May I suggest Rentberry, a compehensive solution for both the business and the customers? Thanks the article, and for the inspiration!

Dannie – Great post! You outlined an issue that I believe many people can relate to! I work in the manufacturing industry and we too utilize many different tools that all accomplish varying tasks. Email newsletter clients, portals, project management tools, file storage and cloud services are just a few of the different things I have to deal with on a daily basis. None of these items communicate or integrate with each other. We have not attempted to sync all of these services but I could only imagine the potential nightmare of doing this. There always seems to be surprises that come up during every tech project. Hopefully all the glitches have been worked out of your new system!