Dive Brief:
- About two-thirds of consumers say technology has improved their shopping experience, but over-personalization and tracking can feel invasive, according to the Capgemini Research Institute’s annual global consumer trends report.
- Another 7 in 10 consumers worry their personal data could be used for hyper-personalized content, while just over half would switch retailers for stronger privacy protections.
- For businesses, the most important “responsibility is respecting and protecting users’ privacy and sensitive data,” Nikos Bartzoulianos, the group chief marketing officer for Electrolux Group, said in the report.
Dive Insight:
There has long been a conflict between consumers’ privacy concerns and their actual behavior, a phenomenon dubbed the privacy paradox.
Most people care about privacy but often share their data regardless, according to a 2023 study by researchers at Google and Carnegie Mellon University.
That’s because consumers often have to make trade-offs between convenience, personalization and privacy risk. Whether they share personal information depends on context, incentives, social norms and potential benefits, according to a 2025 study by researchers at Princeton University, the University of Oxford and Luohan Academy.
More than three-quarters of consumers want to set boundaries for digital assistants, while two-thirds say they trust AI more when it explains the reason behind its recommendations and actions, according to Capgemini. In addition, 71% of consumers worried about how generative AI uses personal information, and two-thirds expect brands to disclose AI-generated advertising.
For CX leaders, this has direct implications. Brands cannot assume that expressed privacy preferences alone predict behavior. Instead, businesses must earn trust through data transparency, getting informed consent and robust security policies that reduce friction and uncertainty, according to DataGuard.
