Is Consumer Data the Most Valuable Commodity on Earth?

Consumer data simply refers to the personal information of you and me. It includes our addresses, geographical location, personal preferences, likes and dislikes, hobbies, information of family members, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, caste, religious views, political views, music interests, etc. This is some routine level of information that we give away everywhere, especially when signing up with online applications and platforms.

All of the information that we provide to one party is actually stored on their servers. For instance, your pictures, information, credit card credentials, etc. are currently stored on the servers of every social networking site or media platform that you have signed up with. These platforms require such information to assess your prior user experience. It is important for its operation and is a very common practice over the internet market place.

However, there are many questions being raised about where is a user’s data going? Does it always remain safely stored and protected on servers or it is being used for some other purpose which not many people know about? There have been an array of conspiracy theories about corporations using public information for ulterior motives. While the outrageous claims in every theory may not stand true, yet there is a considerable measure by which companies utilize this data for different sorts of purposes.

Consumer data and information is being highly used by companies to create targeted ads and sway our decision making power. This is a revolutionary step in the field of marketing and advertising, but many eyebrows have been raised because customers rather feel violated. Psychometrics is the method used to analyze chunks of data and deduce conclusions about it. Data scientists are marketing and analytics agencies constantly use this data to create important findings of consumer profiles and behaviors which, in turn, is used by organizations to pitch promotional messages. Henceforth, consumer data has become a valuable commodity now.

However, it also a matter about cybersecurity as cyber-attacks can carry out and valuable customer information can be stolen. Millions of people sign up using their information and trust that their credentials would not be misused. In fact, companies that take in information such as credit and debit card details are required to have PCI Compliance in order to protect customer information.

In the wake of cyber breaches and threats, companies that heavily rely on collecting customer data are required to run routine checkups of compliance and security levels. Cygna Labs Corp. specializes in offering compliance surveys and strategies to organizations who believe their systems are not secure. Cygna Labs also offers a vast portfolio of cybersecurity services of mitigating risks, eradicating threats, safeguarding data, and anticipating future attacks. The company holds a strong reputation in protecting the interests of companies and allowing them to perform at an optimized level without having to worry about cybersecurity.