Spy on Me—Just Not at Work

When it comes to surveillance, the longstanding conflict about data—what information consumers are willing to give up, and what companies do with it—is eroding so fast, it may be vanishing.

This week, a host of streaming companies, retailers, and even dating and language apps went viral on social media with year-in-review wraps of users’ behavior on their platforms. These companies now openly admit they are tracking how many lattes we have, what our favorite Taylor Swift song is, even how long we doomscroll on our smartphones.

All of this is astonishing, given how recently consumers were still objecting to firms collecting data. But Peri Hansen, sector leader of the Consumer Products practice and leader of the Marketing Officers practice in North America for Korn Ferry, says it’s all part of a “broader social acceptance” of data collection. “The degree to which people will give up control of their data keeps moving further out,” says Hansen.

Indeed, experts say consumers, who first resisted giving up their personal information, then accepted it as a necessary part of the digital age, now openly embrace companies’ harvesting of it. That’s happening in part because organizations, especially those in the consumer-products sector, have gotten very good at customizing, personalizing, and packaging data in a way users find meaningful, says Bryan Ackermann, head of AI strategy and transformation at Korn Ferry. “People are making a value judgment on how much they are getting from the personalization versus how much data they are giving up for that personalization,” he observes.

To be sure, many people often overlook—or are distracted from—just how much of their data is being collected and how it is being used, says Paul Fogel, professional search sector leader for software at Korn Ferry. “The customization is something consumers love, until they realize how much of their data has been harvested.” For instance, he notes, there has been backlash against companies that have trained AI models, tracked location, or sold personal data.

Still, for all the change on the consumer side, surveillance in the workplace remains a touchy subject. That’s partly because trust between employees and employers is at an all-time low. Surveys show that one-fourth of US professionals don’t believe their employer trusts them, for instance. Ironically, the mistrust is growing in part because remote work has prompted firms to track employees more than ever: 71% of employees are now subject to some form of corporate surveillance. “People make a distinction between surveillance by an outside company versus their own employer,” says Ackermann, “and that impacts what data they are willing to give up.”

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s Organization Strategy capabilities.

Read more This Week in Leadership articles