Dive Brief:

• The overwhelming majority—93%—of consumers have serious doubts that retailers can keep their data safe in the event of a cyberattack, according to Capgemini Consulting.
• Consumers don’t like when retailers engage in activities that they feel compromise their privacy, such as in-store traffic monitoring and facial recognition.
• The financial damage from cyberattacks on retailers is on the rise with $11.4 million in losses so far in 2015—more than twice the annual average. 

Dive Insight:

Consumers don’t believe that retailers can be trusted with their data, a new survey from Capgemini Consulting indicates. Analyzing more than 220,000 conversations in the social media, the study found that 93% of sentiment worldwide is negative, suggesting that consumers don’t believe retailers can trusted to keep private information secure should they be targeted with a cyberattack.

Worse still, the report says, most (51%) consumers don’t like when retailers invade their privacy in an effort to target them better. Mistrust is worst when retailers use in-store traffic monitoring (84%) and facial recognition software (81%).

With fiscal year 2015 outpacing a six-year average for cyberattacks, retailers should act to reassure customers that their data is safe to build trust and avoid activity that might undermine it. Only 14% of retailers won a positive perception from consumers for their personalization and privacy initiatives, and any effort to protect consumer data will stand out as a differentiator.