Digital Solutions to Allay EU Consumers’ Privacy Concerns

In the past two years, consumers have become more dependent on digital interactions, making data privacy a hot topic as a result.

According to a recent PYMNTS report examining consumers’ desires for privacy and security as they engage in everyday activities such as banking and online shopping, data revealed that 82% of United States adults are concerned that their online data may not be secure and that 82% would also like to have a better understanding of the personal information companies have collected.

Read the PYMNTS report: Digital Identity Tracker

The report, which also examines what consumers really want from companies that have access to their personal data, further showed that just 39% of U.S. adults said they know where their online data is stored.

And those data-related concerns are not just specific to the U.S.

In Europe, privacy concerns have taken center stage in recent years, leading the European Union (EU) to put into effect the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), considered the toughest data privacy and security law in the world, in May 2018.

Since then, the law has been relentless in bringing companies, particularly Big Tech firms, to book.

See also: GDPR Fines Exceed $1.1B in Q3

Last October, PYMNTS reported that GDPR-related fines in the third quarter of 2021 hit 984.47 million euros ($1.13 billion), almost 20 times higher than the combined total of Q1 and Q2 and triple the total amount of fines in all of 2020.

You may also like: Tackling Privacy Concerns Would Be Key to Ensuring Digital Euro Is Embraced by EU Citizens

Amazon snagged the biggest fine at 746 million euros ($843 million), followed by WhatsApp Ireland at 225 million euros ($254 million) for not telling users how it shared data with its parent company, social media behemoth Facebook. Google was in the third spot with fines amounting to 50 million euros ($56 million).

By country, Spain had the highest number of cases through the first nine months of 2021, with 296 incidents, while Luxembourg accounted for the highest cumulative fines at 746.07 million euros ($843 million) from 11 cases, followed by Ireland and Italy.

Digital Identity Solutions

Regardless of these data-related concerns, close to 60% of consumers surveyed in the PYMNTS report said they would be happy to allow companies greater access to their personal data if doing so gives them a better user experience.

This means that there is a potential for organizations to attract new customers — and retain existing ones — if they can implement digital identity solutions that offer customers seamless onboarding and authentication experiences that make security and privacy a key priority.

Further reading: EU Says GDPR A Success; Consumers Still Skeptical Of Open Banking Security

To that effect, United Kingdom-based nonprofit Privacy International recently launched a series to investigate digital identity solutions, particularly the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP) being used by governments and organizations across Ethiopia, Guinea, Morocco and the Philippines.

MOSIP operates as an open sourced, modular application programming interface (API)-based foundational digital ID system, allowing countries to build their own digital identity systems based on privacy in a cost-effective way.

Read more: Securing Personal Identity With Digital ID Connected to User Biometrics

Tools like MOSIP can help government agencies to properly secure their digital identity solutions so as not to expose residents to fraud and security risks.

For example, the Scottish National Health Service (NHS) recently found itself in hot water after its COVID-19 status app was revealed to have leaked citizens’ private information to a number of companies, including Amazon and Microsoft.

Personal data points stored in the app such as names, birthdates and vaccine records were part of the information that was reportedly released to the third parties, significantly compromising patients’ privacies.

And Scotland is not alone. Last year, the Dutch government announced that it would temporarily disable its coronavirus warning app following concerns that other apps could have access to data on people using the app on their Android phones.