Have you ever accepted cookies from a website and wondered what exactly you have agreed to? Do you consent to terms and conditions without reading them? Do you truly know what personal data you are sharing in return for access to a website or app? If so, you are among a minority of just 1%, according to research in 2020 by ProPrivacy. But awareness of our digital identities is growing fast, and just as consumers are becoming more informed about how their data is being used, brands are increasingly using their privacy values to increase sales and levels of customer trust.
An age of hyper-personalisation
Cookies temporarily store unique identifiers, personal data and information about our browsing behaviour: this is how, for example, conducting an online search for trainers will see you being inundated with adverts for running products. Targeted ads are just one element of online personalisation – a strategy used by companies of all sizes to provide a more curated experience for their customers. Whenever you purchase something from Amazon, you will be shown recommendations for similar products; and when you listen to a song on Spotify, you will see suggestions of similar artists and bands. By collecting and analysing your data and responding to your online activity, companies can personalise sales and advertising in the digital age more than ever before.
A recent McKinsey study reported that personalisation at scale has the potential to create up to $3 trillion in new value[1], as increasingly advanced ways of collecting and analysing data lead us towards an age of hyper-personalisation. Deloitte describes this as “the most advanced way brands can tailor their marketing to individual customers… by creating custom and targeted experiences through the use of data, analytics, AI, and automation.”[2] By employing tools to make data-driven decisions, companies can maximise revenue, reduce costs, increase customer retention and expand into new markets. For customers, the reward is an enhanced and more personalised online experience, with content and suggestions that match their interests.
A new dawn of data democratisation?
But there is a flip side. Many customers are now asking if sharing their data is too high a price to pay for the benefits of a personalised online experience. There is a growing feeling that Big Tech has its eyes constantly focused on us – tracking what we say, where we eat, and where we shop, and putting our digital DNA under the microscope. Big Tech rarely strays from the news due to concerns over its presence, its control, and the people at the top with enormous power over our lives. In response, customers are increasingly demanding the choice to restrict access to their data and keep it private.
Regulatory restrictions are also evolving, and as awareness about digital privacy increases, governments around the world are investigating the potential abuse and manipulation of customer data. Recently, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) started laying the groundwork for an antitrust investigation into Facebook. Added to recent investigations into Google and Apple earlier this year, Britain’s competitions regulator is holding true to its pledge to crack down on Big Tech.
Further afield, a European Commission antitrust probe is investigating Facebook’s actions around distorting classified advertising. And in December 2020, the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) were launched to regulate the behaviour of gatekeeper platforms, with the hope of fostering growth, innovation and competiti as a result. Such actions can be seen together as signs we could be heading towards greater data democratisation, in which we will have better access to and control over our own data.
These twin drivers of customer demand and regulatory restrictions are powerful, and their effects can be seen in Google’s recent revelation that it plans to phase out its personalised ad tracking. The tech giant has announced its decision to eliminate third party tracking cookies, which enable third parties to follow users from site to site, by 2022. Google has stated that it “does not believe these solutions meet rising consumer expectations for privacy, nor will they stand up to rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions”.
Apple versus Facebook: conflicting approaches to data privacy
With regulations tightening, Apple is emerging as the biggest advocate for data privacy. Its next software update will include the option to use its tracking service apps as standard, giving customers a simple way to switch cookies off and opt out of data collection entirely. Not only does this break from conventional data policy, it also pits the major Big Tech players against each other. Over the past decade, these digital empires have largely maintained a policy of avoiding direct competition, but Apple’s new data privacy controls have ripped up the playbook. Facebook has fired back, arguing that the opt-in function is essential for it to provide a tailored experience for its users. But it’s not just Big Tech giants like Facebook who will lose vital access to data following Apple’s move – smaller companies also use data to tailor their offering, and they too will feel the effects.
Facebook’s concerns are not limited to Apple – it is also uneasy about elements of Google’s business strategy. In December 2020, more than 30 US states filed complaints in their ongoing antitrust lawsuit against Google with allegations of anti-competitive search practices, following previous allegations about advertising practices built to protect Google’s search monopolies and stifle competition. The crux of the argument is that Google and Apple are less concerned with privacy than creating what the Financial Times described as a “corporate walled garden”, virtually impossible for anyone else to climb. Facebook argues that Apple’s push for privacy is self-serving, driven not by a desire to benefit users, but rather to strengthen its hold as a digital gatekeeper to personalised data.
The future of data privacy
For too
long, the tech industry has felt like the Wild West, lacking in regulation and
oversight. The crackdown on Big Tech marks a potentially seismic turning point
in the landscape, and now the biggest companies are choosing sides: greater
personalisation or greater privacy. Apple’s privacy controls may appeal to many
internet users, but businesses reliant on digital advertising and personalised
content will have concerns. As Facebook and Apple square off, smaller companies
will get caught in the crossfire. Finding a middle ground that can enable
customer privacy without stifling competition will be imperative. Otherwise,
the gains made by regulators will be quickly passed to the tech titans who have
reigned supreme for so long – at a cost to growth, innovation and competition
from smaller players.
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© Digitalis Media Ltd. Privacy Policy.
Digitalis
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email webrequests@digitalis.com
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to webrequests@digitalis.com