In this fascinating overview following his involvement in the ad:tech London panel, "Digital Privacy -- how to respect your customers"; Ben Hourahine from Leo Burnett evaluates the power of consumer choice, and how trust will become the tipping point in the future.

Like many of the issues defining the future of this industry, privacy resides under clouds of technospeak -- cookies, SSL, blue spam, and so on. There are moments when the clouds part, but then privacy becomes lost in legal terminology and weighty information contracts. Unintelligible terms and conditions, privacy documents which reference their own clauses, but rarely the consumer’s own interests, serve as the touch point for consumers. It can be no surprise then that fear is a major catalyst for privacy concerns in the U.K. Fear is the cause of many social ills, but in this area the populace can be forgiven. 

Privacy only becomes an issue when trust is compromised.

When we do not trust an institution which has our information, the use of it becomes a concern. While privacy may appear a complex topic, it really does not have to be. Privacy is as much a social issue as it is a technical or legal one. Brands should always act with the interests of their customers in mind and those that do not are doing bad business. It is as simple as that.

As we move forward, privacy will continue to appear more complicated. It is, after all, a social norm which does not stand still. Five years ago we worried about the developer seeing our photos when we handed our film in to be processed. Now millions of photos are uploaded to the internet every day.

Privacy, then, is an evolving compromise, the boundaries of which are under constant negotiation. Control and responsibility sit at the heart of this issue and the full commercialisation of location based information will mark a tipping point. Once the exposure of being pinpointed at any moment is fully rationalised in the U.K., this area will be at the forefront. The behaviour of information guardians will become central at this time, if consumer data repossession is not to become widespread. By the time this cultural conflict plays out, the smart brands will realise that knowing where someone is will not tell you what they want, in the same way that age, gender and social grade can often obscure the person you are trying to reach today. Trust creates openness, and while data has value today, trust will be much more valuable tomorrow.

The brands of the future will live out the interests of their consumers. Consumers will help them make their lives better. We will then know our customers better than ever and, in turn, they will trust us to use their information to create a better future for both.

Ben Hourahine is futures editor at Leo Burnett in London.