3 in 5 Small Businesses Don’t Inform their Customers About Third-party Data Collection, Reports Survey

If you’re thinking about ways to win your customers’ trust, you should strictly consider safeguarding your customers’ data.

According to the latest survey conducted by CRM Essentials and commissioned by Zoho, 62% of small businesses don’t inform customers that they are allowing tracking codes from third parties on their websites. What’s more surprising is that most of these small businesses have customer data privacy policies enforced.

Being a responsible small business owner who cares for the community, you should take a strong stand to protect your customers’ data. Doing so can set you apart from your competitors and earn your audience’s trust.

Zoho Privacy Survey 2020

There is a growing trend of third-party ad tracking. In fact, all the respondents in the survey have agreed that their companies allow third-party ad tracking.

But when it comes to informing customers about data tracking, 72% of B2B companies don’t disclose it to them. For B2C companies, the number is 58%, states the survey.

Brent Leary, co-founder and partner of CRM Essentials, said,

It’s no secret that data is valuable for powering personalized ads, but we were surprised to find how comfortable companies of all sizes are with unethical data collection methods that leave their customers in the dark and their information in potentially dangerous hands.

Followings are the key findings of the Zoho Privacy Survey:

• 36% of respondents say that third-party ad platforms (that track data) are the main factor to help them achieve sales goals
• 70% of California companies don’t tell customers that they have third-party ad trackers on their website even though California has a consumer data privacy law

It is not like only third-party ad platforms collect data. SaaS companies offering free services may also collect data and sell it to third-party ad platforms.

So it is imperative that you should look into customer data collection done by free tools if you’re using any such tool.

What Zoho Has Done to Stop Third-party Data Tracking

Zoho took a bold step to stop third-party data tracking. The company removed all tracking software from third-parties on its website and applications in 2019.

Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho, said,

User tracking to serve ads has turned into adjunct surveillance, a term we use at Zoho when companies collect data without consumer knowledge. This trend started with B2C services, but it’s alarming to see it has carried over to the B2B world, especially given how essential SaaS solutions are for working remotely during the pandemic. If you’re using a free service, you’re paying for it with your data. That includes free B2B software and mobile apps you might be using, and we need companies to be transparent with customers about how they track users.

Tips to Safeguard Your Customers’ Data

Small businesses have more data than individuals but poorer cybersecurity than large companies. So they are hackers’ favorite.

In fact, 36% of small businesses faced data breaches in 2019.

Being a small business owner, you must be collecting some kinds of customers’ data in order to serve them better.

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Here are some tips to safeguard your customers’ data:

• Remove third-party data trackers from your websites
• Don’t collect more data than you need
• Control physical access to the company’s devices
• Invest in cybersecurity resources

Above all, you should always follow the best cybersecurity practices.

If you’re generating revenues from ad platforms, you should inform your customers what kinds of customer data collection the ad platforms are doing.

Being transparent and having a well-defined privacy policy is key to earning customers’ trust.

About the Survey

Zoho commissioned an independent firm CRM Essentials, LLC, to conduct the survey. There were 1,416 participants across the United States and Canada. The participants hold manager roles to C-level across industries.

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