What exactly are we entrusting to the cloud this International Data Centre Day?

March 20th marks International Data Centre Day, a time to reflect on the significance of data infrastructure in our increasingly digitised world. This year’s theme, “Adopt a School,” urges big businesses to ‘get down with the kids’ and encourage the youth of today to dip their toe into the data centre industry.

While the focus on inspiring future talent is crucial, the need to educate them on the unwritten rules of data privacy and trust is equally (if not more) important.

Gen Z’s: Tech-savvy, or too trusting?

Today’s youngsters are undeniably tech-savvy, but new McKinsey research reveals that they’re actually more likely to take risks online, giving away far more than they perhaps intend to. A lack of questioning and skimming past the obligatory small print is, inadvertently, aiding e-commerce giants in their pursuit of personalised marketing strategies, and it’s putting their data on the line.

The personalisation paradox

While it’s true (for the most part) that data-driven personalisation enhances the user’s experience, it walks a fine line between convenience and intrusion. The modern consumer increasingly demands control over how their data is utilised, and any sense of broken trust can lead to decreased customer loyalty and damaged reputations.

Businesses that demonstrate they’re genuinely protecting their customers and taking a more transparent approach to insights gathering are more likely to benefit long-term. And as Gen Z’s buying power accumulates, brands that are clear on exactly what their customers are entrusting to the cloud (and the thousands of servers sitting in data centres) are more likely to be crowned the true leaders of CX.

Working towards a data-driven generation

Data trust sits at the heart of everything we develop at InAcademia. So, in the spirit of International Data Centre Day and ‘focusing on the future’, we strongly believe in giving pupils a well-rounded view of data sharing – educating them on the good, the bad, and the ugly. Especially if the industry is seeking to explicitly address the younger generation.   InAcademia supports the ability of users to only share that information they need to share and not open the doors to oversharing.

Hyperscalers are a part of life – in fact, we depend upon them, and this dependency will only grow with time. Let’s embrace this as responsibly as possible and find new ways to protect our young people, brand reputations and, ultimately, the details we’re apparently willing to share so haphazardly.