What do we give up for a personalized experience?

In this hyper-connected world, having a unique and personalized consumer experience is the norm. Log onto Amazon and see relevant products appear based upon your buying and browsing habits. Look at Facebook and see ads that can be traced directly back to your browsing history. Jump to Google and viola!…the same ads.

Take your smart phone with you in your car, and as you start it up, the smart phone will tell you how long it will take to get to your destination. But wait, you never told it where you were going. How does it know this?

There are many examples where you give up something in order to experience something that is uniquely tailored to you. But what are you giving up?

Is it privacy?

Giving up privacy is something few will do intentionally. A good example of surrendering privacy is providing protected information to an unverified third party; withness the reprehensible phone scams that often prey upon the innocent, like the elderly.

Privacy is just that. Private. We should all be very diligent in protecting privacy.

So maybe, just maybe what we are giving up is…anonymity. If we choose to remain anonymous, we can forfeit some of the most enriching and fulfilling moments life has to offer.

Remember the television show ‘Cheers’? Where everybody knows your name. Your favorite seat. Your favorite cocktail.

Many of us enjoy that kind of experience when we work out at the health club. It’s the personalized experience. But in order to enjoy an enhanced level of personalization, what are we willing to give up?

The good news is you can hang on to your privacy. Just don’t be anonymous.