Are The Data On Your Clients An Asset Or a Liability?

This question was never really raised when the concept of “big data” first came into the picture. For the first time, businesses could collect customer data on a large scale to analyze and utilize it to improve their product and services under data as a service model. In turn, many businesses took advantage of this opportunity. They did, in fact, improve their offerings. 

According to reports, Netflix studied viewer data to identify and classify its library into nearly 80,000 ‘micro-genres’ of film. It used them to generate personalized recommendations, which proved critical to its success. However, many consumers have recently begun to oppose the notion of giving a data company complete control over their data. They are concerned about security and have broader ethical concerns. 

According to a survey, 79% of the respondents expressed that they are very or somewhat concerned about how businesses use the data they gather about them. 48% said they had already switched businesses or service providers due to data policies or data sharing practices. 

While 46% of customers believe they no longer have control over their data, 137 out of 190 countries have passed laws to ensure data protection and privacy. This brings us back to the original question: Is data an asset or a liability? 

Data as a Liability 

Data is valuable beyond dispute. But it also carries a clear risk. In fact, data is not the lauded resource that is frequently thought of as being. It might prove challenging and even dangerous. The most frequent critiques of data’s benefits center on issues of cost, security, and consumer safety. 

The most fundamental argument for data being a liability is cost. Keeping and processing all of the data a data company collects costs money and consumes a lot of energy. This includes not only the cost of data hosting, but also the costs of the software required to collect, analyze, and manage the data under the model of data as a service. 

Many people are reluctant to share their data due to the increased awareness and instances of data breaches and cybercrime. Businesses that do collect the data then have to worry about making sure it’s secure. Another case of the risk associated with data hoarding is this one, where a breach could harm your reputation with customers and undermine any trust you may have gained. And this holds true whether or not you used that information. 

In addition to significant data breaches, data collection and use may compromise privacy. People typically dislike feeling as if they are being spied on. Nobody wants to have their every move followed and watched. Therefore, it can be annoying or unsettling for customers when they receive services and products based on details they haven’t shared. It might scare them away in some instances or harm their relationship with your brand. 

Data as an Asset 

When used properly, data can be a benefit. It provides information that is crucial to guiding and improving all of the business endeavors. However, companies are gathering a tremendous amount of it. In fact, it’s getting to the point where it’s a liability. 

Therefore, a data company must ensure that they are using their customers’ data effectively if they want to optimize it. We should constantly ask ourselves, “Does the advantage outweigh the costs?” Only gathering pertinent data is the first step toward accurate and efficient data use. It implies abiding by the law when using it. And it entails carefully analyzing how to utilize the insight it provides. Using data as a service model, you can analyze the data that you have collected and monetize your data according to its usefulness.  

Turn Data into an Asset from a Liability 

The general consensus up until recently was that the best data was just more data. However, new privacy and regulatory concerns have shifted the conversation and are still influencing how marketers handle data. The truth is that more data is not necessarily always better. Smart marketers are increasingly concentrating on the data they hold and control. Thankfully, developments in artificial intelligence have made it possible to survive by refocusing attention from “all the data” to the most pertinent and useful data for the task at hand. The following tips can help you to make the best out of the data in hand and perceive it as an asset, not a liability: 

• Determine and resolve your data issues. 
• Encourage a Data-Driven Culture 
• Utilize Data to Make Future Plans 
• Get rid of the irrelevant data 
• Prepare your data to put into work 

To Sum It Up 

It’s time to declutter your data. All the useless data that is cluttering up your systems needs to be stopped from being stored. If the upside of retaining the data does not exceed the threat of storing it, there is no point. Concentrating on collecting and keeping only the data a business actually use and need is the key to lowering the liability of data. You must also be conscious of the potential consequences of any decisions made in light of data insight. Keep the data that is an asset and discard the information that is merely a liability.  If you are a marketer and looking for a rich repository of zero-party data that is relevant to your business, Cubera is the place. Cubera offers rich self-declared data that is free from cluttered and irrelevant information. The data has been collected by abiding all necessary policies and regulations and allows to monetize your data.