84% of Indians prefer doing business with organisations that protect their personal data

New research from OpenText™, an Information Management solutions company, reveals that 84% of Indian consumers would pay more to do business with an organisation that is committed to protecting their data privacy – surpassing UK (49%), Germany (41%), Spain (36%) and France (17%).

The new data – from a survey of 6,000 Indian respondents – highlights public uncertainty and distrust around how organisations handle their data. Almost a quarter (24%) of Indians don’t trust in the ability of third-party organisations to keep their personal information safe or private. The survey results accurately capture Indian sentiments at a time when there is no comprehensive data privacy law in place and India is rapidly going digital.

Getting to grips with data privacy

While a majority (78%) of Indian consumers broadly know how many organisations use, store or have access to their personal data (e.g. email address, contact number, bank details etc.), 22% still “don’t have a clue” about it. Furthermore, three in ten Indians (30%) say they only have a vague idea of the laws that protect their personal data – compared to UK (36%), Germany (32%), Spain (40%) and France (30%). The majority of Indians (61%) confirm that they are very aware of these regulations.

In fact, 31% of the respondents said that they would proactively get in touch with an organisation to see how it is using their personal data or to check if it is being stored in a compliant manner. Almost half of the respondents (48%) have already done so at least once.

“The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the pace of digital transformation, as companies have moved to remote work and digital customer experiences,” said Lou Blatt, Senior Vice President and CMO at OpenText. “Digital is now central to almost every business interaction – generating more data for companies to manage and secure. This shift coupled with increased consumer data privacy expectations means organisations are now under pressure to ensure that their data privacy solutions can scale appropriately for this digital-first era.”

Taking responsibility for data privacy

More than two thirds of the Indian respondents (67%) feel they know how to keep their own data private and secure on apps, email accounts and social media platforms, from using privacy settings to turning off geolocation. Only 4% believe keeping their data private and secure on apps, email accounts and social media is the responsibility of the app or company in question.

4 in 10 (44%) Indian consumers believe that we are already at the point when every business is meeting its legal obligations to keep customer data private – more than in Spain (17%), Germany (13%), UK (9%) and France (11%). In fact, only about 516 of the respondents either see this as a distant future or believe it will never happen.

“Abiding by data privacy laws goes beyond a legal concern – it endorses an organisation’s willingness to respect data usage and thereby protect its customers’ privacy. The survey results highlight the growing concerns of Indian consumers regarding data privacy. This implies a need for greater transparency and more investment in technologies that give consumers a real-time view on how their data is being stored, processed and used. Leaders should adopt a comprehensive privacy management system that can automate and integrate an organisation’s privacy policies with the state’s data protection laws,” said Isaac Rajkumar, Managing Director, India and Vice President, Engineering.