“The Internet Society is disappointed, but not surprised, at the news of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica revelations. This incident is simply the natural outcome of today's data driven economy that puts businesses and others first, not users.”

They noted Mark Zuckerberg's apology is a first step, but it is not enough. “The seriousness of the revelations calls for more than mere apologies. Change is needed.”

The Internet Society recommended the need for higher standards for transparency and ethics when it comes to the handling of information. “Anyone who collects data must be accountable to their users and to society. As we have seen this week, data abuse and mishandling can have grave consequences for both individuals and society.”

The group emphasized the Internet Society's deep commitment to a trusted Internet. “In a connected world, everyone is affected by everybody else's actions. Incidents like this contribute to an overall climate of declining trust in the internet and threaten its economic value.”

As organizations strive to keep touching customers, they should also ask, “Is my brand being creepy?” according to the 2018 CX Trends Report from Salt Lake City-based text analytics firm InMoment.

The study asked 2,000 customers and 1,000 brands about various customer experience topics to determine where companies and their clients are diverging.

The No. 1 trend was: “Personalization can get too personal.” Defining “creepy” as brands “causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease,” the survey noted that 75% of respondents find most forms of personalization brands use to be at least somewhat creepy.

Additionally, 40% of brands admitted they knew they were being creepy with people's personal information, including tracking what they buy, places they visit online, places they shop in person and other such info.

What is creeping people out? The survey included anecdotal evidence about creepy behavior displayed by brands:

• “When I have been shopping online and a product I was looking at appears publicly on an unrelated page some time later … This makes me feel like I'm being watched!”
• “I didn't like being emailed about a product I had left in a cart on a website or emailed about products I have recently searched. Also, I do not like targeted ads on websites. It feels like I'm being stalked.”
• “[The brand] wanted me to enable/install app to get a great in-store experience, but of course it ALSO asked for permissions to [access] my contacts, location, emails, etc. NO WAY.”

The good news for brands who like to “touch” their customers is 49% of consumers will not actually do anything after being creeped out. However: 22% said they would look for a different brand, 21% said they would stop using the brand, another 21% said they would tell their friends; and 9% said they would post negative comments on social media.