23andMe has filed for bankruptcy and its customers are being advised to request immediate deletion of their data to avoid their genetic data being sold off. The company, which holds data of ~7 million customers, suffered a massive breach in 2023 and faced a subsequent loss of consumer trust which began a spiral fall.
More than 60% of consumers resent brands placing the onus on them to protect their own data and privacy according to the latest Digital Trust Index report from Thales. More than 80% abandoned a brand last year because of privacy concerns. Nineteen percent learned that their personal data had been compromised in the past year and while banking remains the most trusted sector, less than a third of the 16-24 age group have faith in it (down from 44% last year).
California is intent on companies respecting and responding adequately to consumer privacy rights requests as outlined in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and Honda Motor Company just received a $632,500 administrative fine for not complying. Reasons included the company requesting excessive information and verifications to submit a deletion request.
Media mix models (MMM), originally developed in the 1960’s, have undergone a resurgence as new technologies make them easier to execute and click-based attribution becomes less credible. But evaluating MMM brings its own challenges. Australia-based Mutinex offers a vendor-neutral Open Source MMM Validation Framework which is now available for free to North American marketers and agencies.