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Taking liberties?: New uses of consumer data in the UK

Funded by: The Leverhulme Trust

Led by: Dr Kirstie Ball (The Open University Business School)

Background

Please note: final research reports are available below.

Taking Liberties was a three year project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, which aimed to identify whether consumer data collected as part of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programmes are being used in security measures in two key industries: financial services and travel.

With government attempts to stem the international flow of terrorist finance, financial services institutions in G7 countries are required to monitor suspicious transactions on their customers' accounts using a profile of 'expected' behaviour for that customer. The same is true in the travel industry: the UK government is currently implementing a comprehensive E-borders programme which features, among other things, detailed risk profiling of travellers based on passenger information provided by airlines and travel operators.

As the private sector becomes more closely integrated into the general delivery of government services, we aim to investigate whether CRM profiles developed in private sector organisations as part of CRM programmes are becoming more securitized or criminalised. We also aim to uncover if the role of the CRM expert and the customer facing employee has changed in this regard. Background to the project CRM involves activities an enterprise performs to identify, select, acquire, develop, and retain profitable customers. Using databases of consumer characteristics and buying behaviour, CRM produces statistically generated market segments, each having a distinctive profile, which are used to identify the relative value of customers to the organisation. Every member of society has a 'data double' in a marketing database which determines product offers deemed 'appropriate' for one's market segment.

By its very nature CRM is discriminatory, in that it seeks to make organisations treat their customers differently based upon their personal characteristics or habits. Traditionally CRM has been directed towards defining customer attractiveness and value, promising much to organisations in terms of profits and customer relationships. Changing national security arrangements are now affording it wider significance as counter terrorism measures have direct implications for CRM practice in the financial and travel industries.

In circumstances where 'being in the wrong category' results in the freezing of financial assets, deportation or imprisonment, the accuracy and application of profiles becomes critical. Errors occur when databases are combined, missing information is 'filled in', data quality is poor, and profiles become inaccurate at the level of the individual. Recent evidence also suggests CRM experts replicate their own prejudices as they design profiles. As profiles are linked to neighbourhoods, and with discourses about race and place closely allied to identifying potential 'terrorists', profiles can concretize prejudices and link them not only to economic opportunity but also to liberty. Moreover, implementing security measures as well as customer service benefits may present customer facing employees with conflicting priorities, encourage them to implement rules more harshly, and further mobilize bias.

Aims and objectives

Using an integrated set of mixed methods, 'Taking Liberties' had four objectives:

  1. To identify the uses of customer data in the financial services and travel sectors
  2. To determine whether there is cross fertilisation between profiling for attractiveness and security
  3. To explore any resultant changes in the role of the CRM expert
  4. To explore any resultant changes in the roles of those in customer facing jobs.

Methods

Objectives 1 and 2 were achieved using a survey instrument which had already been tested, applied and published. It included measures concerning uses of customer data, cross fertilization between different data uses and was electronically administered to marketing directors across organisations in the financial services and travel sectors. Samples were generated using marketing professionals (e.g. Chartered Institute of Marketing) and industry bodies (e.g. Association of British Travel Agents, Financial Services Authority). At the end of the survey, respondents were asked to indicate their willingness to participate in a case study. This was the basis of access negotiation to complete research objectives 3 and 4.

Objectives 3 and 4 were achieved using qualitative case studies with two organisations from each sector. Data sources were  non-participant observation, interviews and organisational documentation. Questions in this phase concerned changes in data sources, systems, work practices, profiles, and approaches to customer service.

Findings

Research team

Links

Publications

Ball, KS, Daniel, EM, Dibb, S, Meadows, M  (2010)  'Democracy, surveillance and "knowing what's good for you": the private sector origins of profiling and the birth of 'citizen relationship management'', Surveillance and Democracy, Abingdon, Routledge.

Research centre: Responsibility and Regulation (R&R)