Study: Social Login Usage Surges While Consumers Demand Transparency About Data Handling

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - Sep 25, 2014) - Gigya, the Connected Consumer Management Suite, today announced results from a new study that examines how consumers perceive and respond to privacy, personalization and social login. The study indicates that the adoption of social login continues to surge as consumers place a premium on convenience and ease-of-use, with more than half of respondents saying they use social login because they don't want to spend time filling in registration forms in order to register on a site. Yet despite demand for instant gratification, consumers are still concerned about privacy and want to trust the brand or technology they are interacting and sharing information with.

Key findings from the study include:

• 77 percent of consumers have logged into websites and mobile apps using social login, a 45 percent increase from a 2012 survey
• Of those who have used social login, 66 percent of respondents report using it either "whenever it is an option" or "often," nearly doubling the percentage (35) from 2012
• Of those that use social login:
  • 53 percent do so because they don't want to spend time filling in registration forms
  • 47 percent do so because they don't want to create or remember another user name or password
• More than half of consumers report feeling more comfortable using social logins that have a clear indication of what data will be collected and how it will be used, as opposed to when they don't receive those assurances
• 84 percent of consumers have abandoned filling out an online registration form because they were unhappy with the amount of information being asked of them
• 60 percent have abandoned a purchase because it required filing out a registration form
• 43 percent of consumers have ignored future communications from a company after being sent irrelevant information or products
  

The new report, based on data collected by OnePoll in July 2014, features perspectives from 2,000 U.S. male and female adults ages 18 to 55. The results concluded that while consumers are increasingly moving away from lengthy registration forms, they still want to ensure that their information is protected. The study found that 47 percent of consumers are concerned about organizations selling their data, reaffirming the need for brands to build trust with consumers. In fact, 86 percent of consumers are wary of data brokers and think they should be more heavily regulated by the government.

"It's clear that consumers today have reached a threshold where convenience is king. Our study shows that social login use is becoming essentially ubiquitous and is becoming a standard for consumers when interacting with brands on web and mobile," said Patrick Salyer, CEO of Gigya, which will process more than one billion logins in 2014. "Yet the need for transparency into how information is being collected and used has not diminished. Consumers are willing to share information if they know what it is being used for and how it will benefit them."

To provide the level of transparency consumers want, Gigya provides SocialPrivacy™ Certification to inform consumers about how their information is being used and to help brands ensure they are following industry best-practice guidelines with data collection and usage. Gigya highlights the following criteria for brands looking to leverage social login to provide better user experiences and personalize marketing while also meeting privacy concerns:

• Data Protection: Do not sell the social profile data of users or their friends to third parties
• Friend Protection: Do not send private messages to a user's friend(s) unless prompted by the user
• Social Publishing: Do not publicly post to a user's social network account on behalf of a user without the user's explicit permission
• Email Opt-In: Do not use personal information obtained via social login to send newsletters or promotional emails unless users have opted-in to such notifications
  

Social login "is becoming increasingly popular with buyers as they become more comfortable providing brands with access to their social profile data," wrote Kim Celestre, senior analyst at Forrester Research in a May 2014 report on social login. With 29 percent of social marketers planning to implement social login on their websites in the next 12 months, "the future of social marketing lies in its power to enrich marketers' understanding of their customers -- both in a social context and outside of it."¹

Full results from Gigya's survey can be found here.

About Gigya
Gigya's Connected Consumer Management Suite enables the world's largest brands, including, Verizon, ABC and The NFL to understand and connect more closely with today's mobile and socially connected consumers. Our technology helps businesses access, consolidate and manage permission-based identity and behavior data, while providing deep customer insights that turn data into action.

Through products like Social Login, Registration-as-a-Service, Consumer Insights, Social Analytics, Social Plugins and Gamification, Gigya provides clients with the rich data, intelligence, and tools needed to reach consumers with the right messages, on the right platforms at the right time. Gigya drives user acquisition and engagement for 700 enterprises and reaches 1.5 billion unique users per month, ensuring that today's businesses stay relevant in the age of the connected consumer.

¹ Brief: Use Social Login For More Than Just Fast Registration, Forrester Research, Inc., May 20, 2014