A report from Capgemini Consulting — Privacy Please: Why Retailers Need to Rethink Personalisation — reveals the difficulty faced by retailers in striking the balance between personalisation and privacy: just 14% of retailers are perceived positively on both counts.

The report analysed social media sentiment of more than 220,000 conversations over six months, covering 65 large global retailers.

Findings revealed that the main factors contributing to negative sentiment are data security ( 76%) and intrusive behaviour by the retailer ( 51%). There were also negative perceptions of ‘intrusive’ technology, such as in-store traffic monitoring ( 84% negative) and facial recognition ( 81% negative).

“We believe that the 14% of leaders who solve the personalisation-privacy conundrum demonstrate best practice in three areas: personalisation initiatives that give customers control and a clear value; using technology to drive customer satisfaction rather than just as an enabler; and a clear governance framework and practices on personalisation and privacy,” the report said.