Bilal Jaffery Tells Us Why Your Data Is So Valuable

Bilal Jaffery is the Customer & Marketing AI Practice Leader at Deloitte Canada. Typically known as an accounting firm, Deloitte is 40% accounting, but the rest of it is actually focused on solving the really complex issues that their clients may have. Deloitte is focused on customer experience, data analytics, technology implementation, and advisory services all around it. This also relates to all front (customer-facing) and back office (back end) needs, customer marketing, and much more to allow them to assist with any issues or questions their clients may have like sales dropping or asking how they can market for today's world.

At Deloitte a lot of their work is focused on building out strong capability, and sometimes that means they will consult and advise on the right way of using SEO practices, but other times Bilal says their clients don't have the tools to do it themselves, and in that case, they will map out the strategies and execute for them. “It's a blended model,” Bilal continues, “again the large size of the organization kind of allows us to tailor to whatever the client desires.”

Bilal sees a future in customized digital advertising where Facebook could take your personal information, that you've allowed them to have access to, to be able to showcase even more personalized assets than we have today. Data like where you live, the weather on a certain day, the contents of your calendar or a personalized Spotify playlist, for a few examples, could all contribute to a very specific advertisement that would draw your attention because it's so specific to you.

Thanks to the oversharing we do with platforms like Facebook or Google, companies could have access to all of this information down to the point of knowing when you pick your kids up from school for example (using location services and your calendar). You could potentially get hit with an ad for ice cream while you're in the school parking lot waiting for your kids to come out, that's how precise it can go! Although this is few and far between so far, this technology is very much a reality because our devices are so fine-tuned to be personalized to you.

All of this valuable data isn't simply available without you allowing it or knowing that it's happening, however, so don't be worried that all of your personal info is just out there to be used against you. Often rather than this uber personalized advertisement, companies will target markets with mass amounts of people, such as a specific location or age group.

Written by Juliana Bermudez