How Companies Learn Your Secrets

Name
Course
Tutor
Date
How Companies Learn Your Secrets
Retailers collect information from their shoppers with the aim of improving the overall customer experience. Similar to other retailers, Target collects data on customers that visit their stores. Target uses the Guest ID number assigned to each buyer, which stores tabs on everything they purchase (Duhigg 1). For example, when a customer uses a credit card, it is recorded and linked to the Guest ID. Demographic information like age, marital status, place of residence, salary estimation, credit cards, and browsing history are collected as well. Snooping on such personal data is unethical, as long as the company does not have the consent of the customers. Unintended behavioral influence occurs using advanced analytics as retailers give customers personalized purchase offers based on their observed behavioral patterns. However, the company did not violate any privacy contracts or laws when they snooped into their customers' personal information. However, invading consumers’ privacy without their consent is unethical. Although the customers were pleased with the coupons, and they were not aware that the company was collecting their private data. Hence, the company should mind about public relations while using customers' private data for their gains.
Economists, statisticians, and psychologists should obtain permission from people before using their secret data for decision-making. The data collected is used in analyzing consumers' shopping behavior. Big data brings significant gains and enables organizations to personalize their goods and services on a vast scale. It facilitates new business models and services, thus mitigating operational risks. Allowing analysts to use buyers’ private information may affect companies and individuals in some unintended ways. Using consumer data without the client’s consent is likely to damage the reputation of a company in the long run. Thus, before using consumer data, it is both ethical and legal to seek their consent first.
There exists a difference between business risks and strategy risk improvements through the use of significant data methods. Additionally, growth in customer services differs from growth in company operations. For instance, accurate buyer profiling can be done using diverse information sources like social networks and electronic gadgets (Duhigg 3). The use of such information in scientific research and marketing research without leaking the customers' information is near impossible. Consumers might use the internet without protecting their secret data, thus allowing people to use such information in an unintended way. Buyers’ segmentation and profiling can result in bias regarding gender, ethnicity,...