84% Indian consumers willing to pay more to do business with organisations committed to protecting data privacy: Report

A majority of Indian consumers would pay more to do business with an organisation that is committed to data protection, according to New research from OpenText, an Information Management solutions company.

The research includes data from a survey of 6,000 Indian respondents and highlights public uncertainty and distrust around how organisations handle their data.

According to the report, 84 per cent of Indian consumers prefer organisations that are committed to protecting their data privacy, surpassing United Kingdom (49 per cent), Germany (41 per cent), Spain (36 per cent) and France (17 per cent).

Survey findings

According to the survey, 24 per cent of Indian respondents said that they do not in the ability of third-party organisations to keep their personal information safe or private.

The report also added that while 78 per cent of Indian consumers broadly know how many organisations use, store or have access to their personal data such as email address, contact number, bank details etc., 22 per cent still “don’t have a clue” about it.

Furthermore, three in ten Indians (30 per cent) said that they only have a vague idea of the laws that protect their personal data – compared to 36 per cent of consumers in the UK , 32 per cent in Germany, 40 per cent in Spain and 30 per cent in France.

31 per cent of the respondents said that they would proactively get in touch with an organisation to see how it is using their personal data or to check if it is being stored in a compliant manner. While 48 per cent have already done so at least once.

Indian consumers are also actively taking responsibility for their data. 67 per cent of Indian respondents said that they know how to keep their own data private and secure on apps, email accounts and social media platforms, from using privacy settings to turning off geolocation.

Only 4 per cent of the respondents believed that the responsibility of keeping their data private and secure on apps, email accounts and social media lies with the app or the company in question.

4 in 10 (44 per cent) Indian consumers said that they believe that we are already at the point when every business is meeting its legal obligations to keep customer data private – more than in Spain (17 per cent), Germany (13 per cent), UK (9 per cent) and France (11 per cent).

“The Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the pace of digital transformation, as companies have moved to remote work and digital customer experiences,” said Lou Blatt, Senior Vice President and CMO at OpenText.

“Digital is now central to almost every business interaction – generating more data for companies to manage and secure. This shift coupled with increased consumer data privacy expectations means organisations are now under pressure to ensure that their data privacy solutions can scale appropriately for this digital-first era,” added Blatt.

“Abiding by data privacy laws goes beyond a legal concern – it endorses an organisation’s willingness to respect data usage and thereby protect its customers’ privacy. The survey results highlight the growing concerns of Indian consumers regarding data privacy. This implies a need for greater transparency and more investment in technologies that give consumers a real-time view on how their data is being stored, processed and used. Leaders should adopt a comprehensive privacy management system that can automate and integrate an organisation’s privacy policies with the state’s data protection laws,” said Isaac Rajkumar, Managing Director, India and Vice President, Engineering.

The research was conducted through 3GEM and Google. Commissioned by OpenText, 24,000 consumers were anonymously surveyed globally, across India, Japan, Brazil, Italy, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Australia and Singapore.