Consumer Data Issues

Virtually all companies now collect, use, share, or sell unprecedented levels of personal information. This refers to information that is linked or reasonably linkable to an identified or identifiable individual. This trend is only expected to accelerate.

With the proper safeguards in place, the proliferation of large data sets of personal information brings significant innovations that can potentially benefit individuals, groups, and the broader society. Individuals may enjoy a much more personalized and customized consumer experience. And data can help identify and respond to unfair or discriminatory treatment. Nevertheless, it also brings challenges. These include:

• ensuring everyone can benefit from the innovations,
• preventing the misuse of personal information, and
• protecting consumer privacy and security. (Privacy refers to the rights that consumers have—or do not have—to control their personal information. Security refers to the need to safeguard personal information from unauthorized access, including hacking.)

Data-driven policymaking: Collecting, disaggregating, and analyzing high-quality data enables policymakers to identify pressing policy challenges. It also allows them to tailor the most effective solutions to address these challenges. Data collection and disaggregated analysis are especially important for identifying and addressing disparities affecting groups who experience discrimination, such as older adults, communities of color, people who identify as LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities. However, these groups are often underrepresented in data sets. To address this challenge, researchers can enhance the collection and analysis of personal information among these groups. This can be difficult to do, particularly when requesting sensitive personal information.

Best practices for expanding data collection for people from groups that experience discrimination include:

• offering strong privacy and security protections, including anonymizing personal information whenever possible and refraining from selling or sharing this information with third parties;
• explaining why demographic information is being requested and how it will be utilized;
• providing surveys and data in multiple languages;
• emphasizing that providing personal information is voluntary; and
• using inclusive research methods. This includes targeted outreach to and oversampling of groups who are discriminated against.