Tech companies have a trust gap to overcome—especially with women
Women are more wary than men about how their personal data is used and protected—particularly sensitive health data—and that may prevent them from maximizing future tech benefits.
Susanne Hupfer
Jennifer Radin
Paul H. Silverglate
Michael Steinhart
Consumers are growing more concerned about being “hacked and tracked” through their tech devices. Our 2023 Connected Consumer Survey found that 58% of respondents worry that their devices are vulnerable to security breaches (for example, hackers stealing personal data), up 8 points from last year.1 The same number also worry that organizations or individuals could track their movements or behavior through their devices, up 17 points from last year.
These security fears appear justified: 2022 nearly tied the record set in 2021 for the most data breaches affecting US consumers.2 In our survey, 34% of respondents said they experienced at least one type of breach or scam in the past year, and 16% fell victim to two or more.3
But it’s not just hackers that consumers worry about: Consumer trust in the companies that sell devices, apps, and online services is eroding, too. Only 50% of respondents feel that the benefits they get from online services outweigh their data privacy concerns—a 9 point drop from 2021—and just 34% feel companies are clear about how they use the data they collect from users—a 14 point drop from 2021.4
This lack of trust is more pronounced among women:5 They’re less convinced that the benefits they get from online services are worth the privacy risk, and more skeptical about how those services protect their data (figure 1). They also feel less informed about how their personal data is collected and used, as well as the steps they could take to limit or control that use. The trust gap appears to be affecting their willingness to share data, particularly when it comes to sensitive health and fitness metrics. In our survey, only 43% of women surveyed with smart watches or fitness trackers said that they share the data collected by those devices with their health care provider, versus 57% of men. They’re also less interested in participating in some near-future scenarios, such as having health metrics flow automatically from their wearables to a health care provider (43%, versus 52% of men) or having fitness metrics transmit automatically to a third party, such as a personal trainer (30%, versus 39% of men).
The disparities around willingness to share data could impact health inequities as use cases that rely on wearable data emerge and mature. There are pilots, for example, in which surgeons monitor their patients’ exercise before and after knee surgery via daily data feeds from smart watches.6 Some patients use wearables to monitor blood glucose levels and heart arrythmias, share results with their providers, and get more immediate insights.7 Data collected from wearables is allowing individuals to participate in large-scale research studies on respiratory, heart, neurological, and liver diseases, in addition to sleep quality, diabetes, and mental illness.8 As health care providers incorporate patient-generated data into their evaluations, potential benefits include earlier detection of issues and better quality of care. If some patient cohorts are less likely to share data and participate in these collaborations systemic health inequities could deepen.9
What’s behind this trust gap? It’s possible that women regard data collection and sharing as more risky than men do, and that they perceive the potential consequences of a security breach or data misuse as more significant.10 These fears may be warranted. Consider that most health apps—along with the data they gather and transmit—are not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which means the data may be shared or sold to third parties.11 Indeed, in an assessment of 23 women’s mobile health apps, researchers found that 20 of the apps shared data with third parties, while only 13 supplied users with information about data security.12 At least one women’s health app that tracks reproductive metrics has already come under fire for misleading users about how it shared sensitive data.13 More broadly, the digital trails that individuals leave—search and browser histories, location data, and so on—may be mined for potentially harmful purposes.14
It’s also possible that existing gender inequities in health care could be contributing to women’s hesitancy to share health data. FemTech, a relatively new category of health tech focused on building products, software, and services that support women’s health and wellness, has the potential to help address health inequities.15 However, FemTech providers should design their offerings with data privacy, security, and transparency from the start—or risk alienating the very consumers they are aiming to attract.
Considerations for tech companies
To bridge the growing trust gap with consumers—and women, in particular—tech companies could give consumers more control and partner with them on how their data gets used. Some steps tech providers could take include:
- Enhancing data security measures on devices and for online services and making it easier for consumers to implement security measures.
- Being more transparent about data-handling practices (e.g., what data they collect, how long they keep it, how they use it, how they protect it, and whether they share it with third parties.)
- Disclosing whether and under what circumstances they’re obligated to share data with law enforcement and tailoring their data retention strategies to avoid keeping any sensitive information in-house.
- Giving consumers more choice over how their data is used and with whom it’s shared, with easier ways to opt out or refine that use.
- Giving consumers incentives to share data—for example, in the form of perks or loyalty programs.
- Considering whether generative AI could be used in future products or services to tailor privacy and data sharing to suit each person’s comfort level.