A recent poll found that 99 percent of firms in the United Arab Emirates utilise third-party trackers and ad networks. According to the poll, only 68 percent of respondents have well-defined and documented rules for client data protection, and only 8 percent strictly enforce them, according to Centurion Consulting on behalf of Zoho Corp., a worldwide technology firm.
“This rampant use of third-party trackers in the business space has severe ethical and privacy implications because of the enormous amounts of customer data being gathered through them,” said Hyther Nizam, President-MEA, Zoho Corp.
Further added, “Most businesses use the same set of third-party trackers, which means the large corporates behind these trackers can combine data collected across different websites and build comprehensive individual profiles for hyper-targeted advertising. We call this practice adjunct surveillance. When the businesses that employ third-party trackers do not adhere to a strict privacy policy for customer data protection, they put their customers’ data at risk. Most internet users are not aware of how much data these trackers are gathering and what is happening with their data.”
The survey shows that 255 companies across the UAE are not totally comfortable in the way third-party vendors use their client information, whereas the majority of the companies say that they do not stop using their clients, because ad campaigns are too important for the generation of leadership and revenue (52%). The insights are critical to their ability to understand customers (28%), and using these platforms is the most cost-effective way to do business (16%).
“There were 9.84 million internet users in the UAE as of January 2021. With 99% Internet penetration, it’s clear that digital is the way forward here. The survey shows that most companies targeting the region’s massive online consumer base are not prioritising user privacy because the use of third-party trackers and ad platforms helps their sales,” said Hyther Nizam.
He also said, “However, consumers are growing more privacy conscious by the day, and more countries are implementing stringent laws to protect consumer’s data and privacy. In the long-run, these businesses will need to rethink their reliance on third-party platforms in order to stay relevant, and gain the trust of their users.”
The primary reasons stated by companies for the use of third-party trackers are, according to the survey,: the efficiency of an ad campaign (79 percent), the sharing of content in social media (70 percent) (65 percent ). The companies use the measurements to determine their customer lifetime. In fact, 73% of businesses claim that third-party trackers and publicity platforms assist reach their sales targets, while another 22% indicate that their sales targets are mostly met.
The survey also concludes that organisations employ technologies to collect data – most respondents utilise numerous suppliers – that intrinsically comply with tight legal regulations and norms, and consumer information is therefore protected. The poll revealed that the larger the name of the tracking company, the greater the confidence among respondents, the more the usage of this information, despite the recent penalties for violations of privacy rules in other jurisdictions against numerous significant suppliers.
In 2020, Zoho eliminated trackers from its website and never sold user data or displayed adverts to anyone, even in free products. Zoho has its data centres and its solutions in their complete technology stack. It can therefore ensure the greatest privacy and security standards for its consumers.
The poll showed that only 24% of respondents were fully aware of regional data protection legislation. These companies have more than 100 employees, of course. Contact persons typically having an online operation, or engaged in e-commerce activities involving the integration of payment gateways are well aware of the privacy policy because, without a well documented privacy policy in accordance with these local laws, the integration agreement cannot be obtained.
The UAE expects a comprehensive federal legislation on data privacy and protection to be put in place relatively quickly. However, free zones like the DIFC and AGDM have their own data protection regulations while the Federal Decree-Law No.(5) of 2012 includes strict mandates to combat cybercrime.
In order to gain insight into businesses’ consumer data protection practises, awareness and adherence to local laws, and the degree of awareness on data collection and usage practises by third-party vendors, the study surveyed 1000 respondents across the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt.
According to 96 percent of respondents, businesses are not explicitly revealing their usage of third-party trackers to collect visitor data on their websites. Furthermore, 98 percent of respondents, the majority of whom were MSMEs, outsourced their website, management, and marketing responsibilities and were sure that the service providers would adhere to regulatory compliance.
