The path to transparency-and trust

Every day, every hour, every second, corporations extract vast quantities of customer facts, statistics, and behavioral trends. Data—big and small, structured and unstructured—is essential, and as the volume expands exponentially, so too are consumers’ concerns over the security of their personal information.

For the past several years, KPMG has explored not just how companies collect, manage, and use data, but also the degree to which these activities are carried out ethically. The annual KPMG Corporate Data Responsibility Survey 2022 examines the opinions of the U.S. general population, American workers and business leaders in relation to current consumer data practices. Ideally, as we consider the relationship between data privacy and data security, we want to capture the difference between the way consumers are feeling and the way companies are acting; what consumers are concerned about and what companies are focused on.

Year over year, the survey has confirmed that American workers increasingly don’t trust companies to use the data they collect ethically and generally don’t trust corporate America at all. The data suggests that Americans are themselves in a somewhat contradictory frame of mind. They’re concerned about the improper use of their data, but still exhibit behaviors that increase their risk, suggesting they likely don't fully understand what's happening in the marketplace with respect to their personal information. Adding to the contradiction, the survey tells us that Americans approve of companies using data in ways that are beneficial to them but consider the sale of their data unacceptable. If data is to be sold, it must be done ethically and with complete transparency: Recent regulatory enforcement has underscored the criticality of transparency and consumer choice.

Hopefully, the results and insights from this year’s survey will inspire you to boldly pursue creative new strategies and employ emerging technologies to expand your customer base, increase efficiencies, and achieve sustainable growth.