Gut Level Data Check

Dateline: May 16, 2014

Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend.

Our organizations are becoming increasingly savvy about using our data for more than just reporting on past performance.  Companies using predictive analytics and even competing on analytics capabilities are more common.  Recently, Sara Watson, a Fellow from the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society published a blog that calls into check our use of our data.  Her blog, If Customers Knew How You Use Their Data, Would They Call It Creepy? suggests that there is a gut level check to make sure our data usage is not crossing an ethical line.  She suggests these checks:

Gut check your data uses. If consumers knew how you were using data, would they cringe?

Provide value to consumers. Explicitly acknowledge this exchange of value and make it real for consumers.

Tell stories that make data uses concrete. … Tell stories about how individuals benefit from the positive impacts of your data practices.

Open a dialogue about norms. …Develop a human-readable values statement that reflects your company’s norms about how data should be used.

Would your customers cringe if they knew how your organization used their data?

That’s a WRAP!  Have a nice weekend!

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