How Can Health Insurer Ifa and Grocery Chain Shopsense Leverage the Customer Data Responsibly?

Health Insurer

Using Business Analytics Responsibly

As members of the buying public, we understand to an extent that information about us is being bought and sold all the time. Marketers use demographic data to better target their respective messages to potential consumers. Healthcare firms use public health information in order to establish contact with to those who require information or medical outreach. And with every product we buy, we offer a greater wealth of data concerning our lifestyle habits and behavioral tendencies. Often, we do this with the expectation that our information will be handled with sensitivity and responsibility by the collecting firm or organization. This expectation is at the center of the case study outlined by Davenport & Harris. The authors describe a case in which health insurer IFA and supermarket chain Shop Sense must weigh the pros and cons of entering into a data-exchange agreement together. As the discussion here will note, should the two firms decide to move forward with a partnership, they must do so with a clear sense of how data will and will not be used.

At the crux of the dilemma facing both companies is concern over the way that information will be leveraged. Ultimately, because the case history eliminates the threat of legal risk in such a contract, the greatest concern is for ShopSense, which must ensure that its customers don't feel violated by the sale of their information to a Health Insurance Provider. The most important step for IFA to take in the face of this concern is to ensure that all private information is exchanged using a secure and effectively encrypted process. First and foremost, the grocery chain must be able to say that its system of databasing and transfer of data is assured by state-of-the-art security and privacy protections. In the event that a discussion on this exchange of information does become a matter due for public discussion, ShopSense must at the least be in a position to note that the data was not otherwise compromised or vulnerable outside of the agreement with IFA

Additionally for ShopSense, it is important that pricing structure and other aspects of the shopping experience are never differentiated for customers based on gathered data. The data is already used to provide shoppers with tips and insights into improving health with shopping decisions correspondent to their habits. However, it is critical that differentiators are merely advisory in nature and that shopper opportunities or discounts are equal in their distribution to shoppers.

A suggestion also put forth in the case history text strikes the reader as being of particular importance. Namely, in IFA's assessment of the potential deal, its executives mention the prospect of an 'opt-out' option. According to the case study, one executive suggested that "maybe the company should formally position Smart Choice and other products and marketing programs developed using the Shop-Sense data as opt in." (p. 3) The executive would compare this strategy to the one proven successful by Progressive Insurance, in which the company offered auto drivers the opportunity to place monitoring devices in their vehicles in order to customize premiums according to the safety of one's driving habits.

A similar program should be considered, not just from IFA's perspective, but also from that of Shop-Sense. The supermarket has an obligation to its customers to inform them of the sale of their data to a health insurer, to provide them with access to information on how that data will be used and to give them the opportunity to continue to enjoy the benefits of Shop-Sense analytics whether they opt in or out of the sale of their information. As with the successful Progressive Insurance strategy, the off-shoot would be the willing involvement of consumers with healthy eating and living habits who desired to benefit from the customized lowering of insurance premiums. Ultimately, providing the option to customers will defy the impression that Shop-Sense is exploiting their personal information for illicit gains.

For its part, IFA does have one area of concern. In terms of its broad responsibility to the public health, the insurance provider is likely to come into certain information which is invaluable not just to competing insurers but to the healthcare community on the whole. By bringing its analysts into contact with the unique body of information provided by Shop-Sense analytics, IFA anticipates establishing strong correlative links between certain consumption behaviors and certain health outcomes for the public. This does burden the firm with the responsibility of dispersing findings that could be of benefit to the public health.