Unsolicited advertising material bothers 74% of South African consumers

These findings are outlined in the Ernst & Young Information Privacy Survey released today, with 89% of respondents saying there should be legislation to prevent companies from sharing their information with others without their permission and 94% believing that privacy policies should be put in place to exclude those to do not want to receive unsolicited advertising.

The survey, conducted by the University of Pretoria for Ernst & Young, highlights several consumer privacy issues and areas of concern that are in line with the increasing concern-trend worldwide.

According to Jaco van der Walt, Retail and Consumer Products Partner at Ernst & Young, the majority of South African consumers have serious concerns with regard to the lack of information privacy protection, advertising solicitation, and information misuse, and 90% of South African consumers are concerned about companies sharing their personal information with other companies without asking permission.

The survey highlights solicitation as a major area of concern, and van der Walt believes that future government consumer protection through legislation will force companies to change the way they target consumers with advertising.

Solicitation concerns outlined in the survey by respondents included:

1: 74% of respondents said that they receive too much unsolicited advertising that is of no interest.
2: 77% of respondents said companies send too much unsolicited advertising.
3: 57% said they are not pleased to receive information from companies with which business have not been done before.
4: 62% said they do not bother to receive telephone calls selling products or services.
5: 65% said too many companies call consumers at their homes to sell products and services to them.

English-speaking groups are more concerned about solicitation with 71%, Afrikaans 62%, and black Africans 46%.

When asked about expectations regarding government protection, 92% of respondents said that government should limit companies' use of personal information for only that purpose for which it was collected, 93% said that government should do more to protect the safety of personal information, and 91% said that government should restrict companies to collect only the information needed for a specific transaction.

Van der Walt says the Ernst & Young survey clearly shows that information privacy concerns are high. "With consumers concerned about their privacy protection, the possible misuse of their information by companies, and solicitation practices, consumers can expect government to enforce protection by means of legislation."

He points out that while SA consumers are just as concerned about privacy protection as the US, we don't currently have the levels of consumer protection there are in the US, where very strict legislation is in place to protect the information privacy of the consumer.

In the past, the US has favoured the model of self-regulation, believing that the market was best placed to control the collection and use of customer information. However, van der Walt points out that continued spamming and lax security policies have shown this faith to be misplaced, and federal bodies are now trying to hammer out privacy specific legislation.

"The weakness in the legislative argument is that legislation often fails to keep pace with developments in technology," he says. "This results in governments inevitably trying to pre-empt advances in technology and legislate accordingly, often with a detrimental effect on commercial development in the process."

Van der Walt believes that a more appropriate model would be a combination of public and private involvement, with the added inclusion of the consumer.

"Consumers seem most concerned about the threat that their personal information will fall into the hands of other individuals or companies," he says. "This raises a red flag and should indicate to businesses that they should pay careful attention to their practices of data disclosure and dissemination."

He points out that trust and privacy are the cornerstones of any successful relationship between consumers and business. "Abuse of this trust will have a profoundly negative affect on the way in which customers and business continue to interact."

He adds that businesses have to deal with the often-conflicting goals of meeting consumer demands for greater privacy protection, while delivering better, more focused goods and services back into the market.

"How privacy legislation and policies develop will shape the way companies collect and make use of sensitive customer information," he explains. "Failure to correctly address consumer concerns carries a number of risks. At the same time successfully detailing and implementing consumer privacy policies may bring about new strategic opportunities."

The survey sample included 800 completed telephonic interviews with adults above the age of 18 residing in South Africa. 36% of the respondents were male and 64% female. The sample included main language groups comprising a spread of 21% African, 41% English and 38% Afrikaans and 2% other.