MEF chairman Andrew BudThe backlash that has followed this weekend’s Sunday Times report, claiming that market research company Ipsos MORI had attempted to sell EE subscribers’ data to Scotland Yard and other parties, is nearly as interesting because the story itself.

Since it was reported, denials from the organisations involved have muddied the facts, however the whole situation has dropped at the skin once more just how concerned mobile users are in regards to the privacy in their information.

“I believe the extent of disquiet this story has raised encompasses a clear lesson,” MEF global chairman Andrew Bud told Mobile Marketing. “Consumers, both as individuals and in soicety as whole, take privacy very seriously. The complete question of user trust, and of sharing info, isn’t only a compliance formality, and it is not only a public affairs issue. Consumer anxiety in regards to the use in their private information is bad for business.”

This is supported by MEF’s own research, which has found that only 37 per cent of customers are comfortable sharing personal data with an app, and that 35 per cent don’t purchase more often on their mobile due to an absence of trust.

Getting it right

Intersec CEO Yann Chevalier

It’s important to not demonise the operators in these situations, points out Yann Chevalier, CEO of Intersec, which gives operators with location-based data capture technology.

“It’s perfectly possible for operators to monetise this information in quite a few ways in which don’t compromise the privacy of subscribers in anyway,” says Chevalier. “Operators have to be ready to compete effectively with Excessive (OTT) players like Google and likewise generate new revenue streams for his or her businesses as profits from more traditional ones similar to voice and information dry up.”

In fact, it seems that EE’s actions for that reason were entirely above board – but perhaps the more important issue here possibly lies with the shopper. 

The average man in the street probably isn’t too aware that information as personal as their location and perusing activity, anonymised though it truly is, may be traded on this way. If examples like these are the manner they’re educated about these issues, they may be prone to react badly.

“This has already reached consumers’ headspace, as you’ll discover from the research,” says Bud. “And as these issues explode, that number [of people that don’t trust sharing data via their mobile] can easily grow. We all know from past examples that simmering concerns can grow to be sudden industry crises, and so i believe that the industry ought to be proactive in doing things that address consumers’ real concerns.”

Bud points to the set of tools that MEF is currently developing for developers to assist them implement best practice, which he says can also be boiled down into three central principles which have to be respected: transparency, user control, and security of information.

“This whole furore has blown up because there has been a perception – which seems to be incorrect – that the info was getting used without users’ control, and without the transparency of users knowing about it.”