If you live in the UK and you’ve been near a television in the last two weeks or so, the chances are you’ve seen Apple’s new ad. The ad is for the iPhone 15, of course, but it highlights a very specific feature for all Apple devices. That being the privacy policy.
For a while now, Apple has been racketing down on its privacy features, with Face ID, ATT, and privacy nutrition labels being the main showcases for customers. Whether Apple is really the most private company is not for us to say, but their marketing efforts do say something quite important about the world we live in right now – and, more relevantly, about how you should approach your web design in 2024.
The Data-Hungry Age We Live In
People think about privacy. Around ten or fifteen years ago, this wasn’t really the case. People would think about privacy for their homes – good locks, solid windows, security alarms – but they wouldn’t take that conscientiousness onto the internet.
In 2024, however, that has all changed. With a number of well-publicised data breaches and leaks, more users than ever are aware of the data-hungry age they’re living in. Whenever people browse online, one of the main things at the forefront of their minds is data privacy and how their data is being collected, and that turns them into a different kind of browser than they were in 2010: a suspicious browser.
The Suspicious Browser
When users click on your website, there’ll likely be three attitudes at play: intrigue, impatience, and suspicion.
They’re intrigued because, whether it’s through an email marketing campaign, a social media campaign, or an organic Google search, they’re looking for something you’re offering and want to know more about you as a business. They’re impatient because they’re an internet user in 2024, and internet users don’t want to spend more than a few seconds on a website without learning exactly what the website offers. And they’re suspicious because they’re more aware of the world they’re living in.
Businesses collect and use data. Yours is no exception. In line with this, every business in the UK and Europe has to follow GDPR rules, ensuring that the data collected is used appropriately. But with several well-publicised fines and the lack of transparency that many businesses have about their data practices, most websites still can’t be trusted.
This is a problem for you, because every user is going to be clicking onto your website with a negative attitude already in their head. If a user thinks that you’re collecting their data or failing to comply with GDPR, they will click off and never revisit. But the only way to show them that you can be trusted and that you comply with GDPR – again, user patience is a key trait to consider – is by being completely transparent.
Going the Apple Way
This is why we recommend going the Apple way: making your data privacy policies and practises a key part of your marketing campaign. Even more important than that – you should make it a key part of your business. To do this, you should be putting those policies front and centre, and involving them in your website content in a number of innovative ways.
The first is through blog content. Instead of constantly talking about your products or services, take a moment to talk about the wider picture: your company as a whole and what you’re doing to protect people’s data.
Visual summaries can also be a good idea, using infographics to highlight the key points of your privacy policy, along with video explanations to make complex information more digestible. Your GDPR compliance, of course, should be included in either the footer or header of your homepage, but along with this, it’s an absolute must when website building to be creative and make that compliance a key selling point to your business.
Conclusion
Apple has had a lot of success in utilising its data privacy policies and making them one of its unique selling points (USPs), and there’s no reason why you can’t do the same.
As mentioned previously, it’s not a great start to have users be immediately – and unavoidably – suspicious of your website, but if you can quickly alleviate their concerns, you’ll be able to keep that bounce rate down and ensure they linger to learn more about your company.
In 2024, strong data privacy policies are important, but so too is complete transparency. Don’t waste the platform that you have. Make sure your customers and potential customers know exactly what you’re doing to keep them safe, and you’ll quickly change them from a suspicious browser to a grateful one.
