Consumer Behavior
Data, privacy big issues for Gen Z consumer
June 14, 2022
The Gen Z consumer, those born in 1995 or later, are big on protecting their privacy and data but are willing to share with merchants, banks and payment platforms depending on the data reward.
That's the prime finding of a survey conducted by Freedom Pay and Cornell University on Gen Z attitudes toward data privacy and willingness to share personal information.
Gen Zers are more willing to share biometrics info than details from their social media accounts, such as gender, data of birth and email, but get more protective when it comes to GPS location, Social Security numbers and medical record data, according to a press release on the survey.
The findings indicate customers are more inclined to give out personal information if there is a reward involved, and participants were clear about how much — and what data — they would be more willing to share. The research also suggested that Gen Z appears to be generally less willing to share their personal information than other groups.
The study found that a $15 reward incentive seemed to have limited impact on a respondent's willingness to disclose high-level privacy details. On the other side of the spectrum, a monetary reward also seemed to have a minimal influence for low level data sharing.
In offering Gen Zers a $15 reward, their willingness to share data increases across the three privacy categories:
- 11% are more likely to share low-privacy data.
- 27% like to share medium-privacy information.
- High-privacy data is more likely to be shared by 24%.
Additionally, the research revealed preferences in terms of the rewards offered for sharing information as well:
- Participants prefer cash discount to loyalty points (at 69% and 31%, respectively).
- They are likely to choose loyalty points if that value is 20 times greater than cash discount value.
- For those Gen Zers who prefer loyalty points, food and beverage was the most preferred category (at 44%).
- The least popular options include debit cards, gas, grocery stores and the hospitality industry.
- Other participants were equally likely to choose food and beverage and retailers equally.
"We were so delighted to be able to work with these outstanding students who were able to uncover some truly great insights about Gen Z and how they think about data and their threshold for sharing," Liesl Smith, senior vice president marketing and sales enablement at FreedomPay, said in the release. "While they are privacy-oriented and have clear priorities on what to protect — one student shared that her social media accounts were as important to her as her Social Security number — there are also clear opportunities for retailers and merchants to reach these consumers with the right mix of promotions."
