(Lack of) Privacy as a competitive differentiator

I have been struggling with the recently fashionable notion of 'privacy as a competitive differentiator' or 'competitive advantage' for some time now (here and here). And I can see similar struggles in some of the literature posted by my peers trying to 'sell' the idea of our privacy position/program as way of distinguishing oneself from your competition – a truly rational exertion, by the way. The optimist in me sees the potential to show how different (better?) you are than your peers by how you treat customer data, and thus leverage that behavior for some (unknown or intangible) benefit. Maybe this is privacy professionals self-talk to make ourselves feel good about what we do, and rationalize that our activities are not just pedestrian compliance functions. I'm sure, however, actuaries have the same goal. As do accountants, account payable professionals and maybe even custodians - all looking to contribute to the company's overall benefit by 'monetizing' the excellence of their services.

Yet I'm still not convinced we have made measurable progress with the public on this issue. I've yet to hear a groundswell of consumer sentiment in which privacy is the primary motivator to buy a product/service or to switch to that product/service. Sometimes you do hear consumers mention privacy, true, but it always seems to be subordinated to something else – bad customer service, low product quality, rude employees, etc. Not that companies have not tried to quantify how much privacy as a service/feature might be valuable to people. There have been some recent attempts by a few companies (AT&T, AshleyMadison.com, Google) to try and put a price tag on 'privacy,' though the end state in those cases look more like a state of secrecy or 'pay not to be annoyed.'

I think, instead, that the lack of privacy controls or an honest culture of privacy within a company will lead to a disadvantage. If nothing else, what this inverse situation will create is a floor, rather than a ceiling, against which all companies must at least raise their privacy-related behaviors (without already being obligated by regulation, that is). Think about cell phones: how viable would a cell be if it was fantastic in every way possible except that it had a 1 megapixel camera? Game over. To even be considered a contender in the mobile phone space today, you have to have at least an 8 megapixel camera. That's just table stakes. Here is where I see the arms race for privacy programs going as well.

(Some) consumers still see privacy as analogous to air - completely necessary to the existence of the arrangement, but generally not taking notice of it until it is in short supply or not there at all. What we need to do as privacy pros is get better at selling how great breathing is.