Online businesses are becoming increasingly advanced, with personalised communication and tailored offers that can really entice consumers to buy. However as businesses become more sophisticated so do online fraudsters.

 

This week has already seen two cases of identity theft hit the headlines (Natasha Cann’s apparent Facebook plea for cash and Albert Gonzalez who has just pleaded guilty to one of the largest cases of identity theft in the US) and according to The Australian Federal Police (AFP), identity fraud costs the nation up to $4 billion a year*.

 

87% of Australians are concerned about identity theft* and yet many businesses still aren’t taking action to prevent it happening.

 

Britain and America have led the way in online retail and finance with many lessons learnt on the way. After a number of high profile losses of data (a record 37 million items of personal data went missing in the UK in 2007**) and the increasing threat of identity theft and online fraud; most of the top UK banks and insurance companies have invested heavily to make sure they have secure websites and stringent data privacy systems in place.

 

But how can a business successfully protect its customers’ data without hindering the levels of service customers are increasingly demanding in terms of knowing their likes and dislikes and undertaking what is now referred to as “interest based marketing”.

 

In the UK many of the leading UK banks and financial services companies successfully manage to operate across multiple channels, gathering data from online visitors as well as offline sources to provide a 360 degree view of their customer to help tailor their communication. But how can this be achieved without compromising data privacy? UK retailers and banks are increasingly opting for in-house, secure customer and web analytics that do not rely on sending sensitive customer or corporate data overseas or to a hosted or SaaS model. This enables them to analyse the data and gain a real insight into their customers whilst protecting the data and never having to share it with a third party.

 

To date Australian banks and retailers have been slow to adopt in-house analytics systems, often sending their data overseas. If this isn’t addressed soon then it may only be a matter of time before Australia suffers from the same issues that previously hit the UK online industry in respect of identity theft and online fraud.

 

David Smith, Director at web analytics provider Site Intelligence, comments: “Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the need to protect data. By adopting in-house systems and data analytics many fraud dangers can be avoided without impacting on the tailored service the company can provide to its customers.”

 

Site Intelligence can be contacted at its Sydney office on Tel: +61 2 9959 5544 or by visiting www.site-intelligence.com.au.