Stop collecting so much data on your websites.
Every bit of data that you collect is also a liability. The more of it you have, the more legal liability your business has.
The other week, when it was time to renew my business insurance, my broker told me they no longer keep credit card numbers on file. Good, I thought. I don’t want anybody to keep my credit card on file.
The same is true for any of my personal information. The fact that my browser knows so much more about me than it should isn’t some sort of wonderful innovation; it’s a mistake on the part of browser vendors. (Unless that browser vendor is also the world’s largest advertising company, in which case it’s not only on purpose, it’s also a little bit of a conflict of interest.)
I think most of us feel the same way. If I walk into your shoe store in real life, I’m totally fine with your cameras being able to paint a picture of where I’m going while I’m in the store. I’m ok with being asked for my information at checkout, although I also hope the store’s staff is okay with me declining to share my email address, physical address, and health card number, thank you.
But when I leave that shoe store, the interaction is over.
That’s not true for a lot of websites. For many people, these tools give you easy ways to see where people came from before they visited your online business, what they did when they got there, and where they went after.
This is too much and your business doesn’t need it to be successful.
Here’s my hot take: most websites that track their visitors after they leave (and before they arrive) have conversion problems, and don’t know how to solve them with design or copywriting. Instead, they attempt to solve their problems with ad profiling.
This is creepy, and it’s not beneficial to the long-term health of your business. To run a successful business, it’s true that you need to know your customers. But you know who your customers are by engaging them and interacting with them.
How much data does your website truly need to collect for you to have a successful business? What’s the least data you could collect while still having a successful business? That’s how much you should collect.