The 2021 US Privacy Segmentation

Data deprecation is here, forcing marketers to stop hoovering up consumer data for opaque use cases. Consumers’ privacy-protecting behaviors are one of the four forces shaping this new marketing reality, but not every consumer has the same expectations, preferences, or concerns around information sharing. To quote Ted Lasso, “Different people are … different.” Our new report, Forrester’s 2021 US Consumer Privacy Segmentation, dissects what consumers really want when it comes to their privacy and why.

The five privacy personas — Reckless Rebels, Conditional Consumerists, Data-Savvy Digitals, Nervous Unawares, and Skeptical Protectionists — are back and here to remind us that:

1. Privacy is contextual. What we share and with whom will impact how much we’re willing to share. What I tell a new doctor about me is very different than what I tell a potential employer upon first meeting, and rightly so. Similarly, what I’m willing to share with a retailer will differ from what I share with an insurer.
2. Privacy is nonbinary. Privacy isn’t as simple as “you either care about it or you don’t.” These personas each come with their own unique combination of concern (or nonchalance) over privacy and knowledge (or ignorance) about the data economy. Get to know your customers and where they stand on this spectrum.
3. Privacy and personalization are not mutually exclusive. Consumers can want both privacy and personalization. While that may sound like a contradiction, it’s not — consumers are looking for personalization on their terms. This is partially driving the trend of zero-party data collection, which creates opt-in experiences that give consumers control of their data sharing.

Check out the new report here. I’ll be presenting a sneak peek of the 2022 privacy segmentation at Forrester’s CX North America Forum in June — I hope to see you there!