Brands, Retailers Size Up Customers; But Will Data Privacy Be an Issue?

Privacy issues in this space have not yet flared up into any controversy as such, but there has not been much research on the subject either. There is also no credible data on what end-consumers think or feel about sharing immensely personal data. Is there trouble brewing somewhere? texfash.com probes.

Subir Ghosh

6 May 2022

4 minutes

Long Story, Cut Short

With brands only now coming to terms with virtual sizing/fitting solutions and the consumer-next-door yet to embrace the practice, the subject of privacy is an undercurrent waiting to simmer over.
The GDPR came into effect in May 2018, at a time when the sizing/fitting sector was beginning to coalesce, but remains an international benchmark for privacy.
In the Web 3.0 world, your data is decentralised and you control your own data, who has access to it, and how it's used.

Lurking under the excitement and buzz that the sizing/fitting segment has generated for the fashion/retail industry is an issue that kindles no interest whatsoever. With brands only now coming to terms with virtual sizing/fitting solutions and the consumer-next-door yet to embrace the practice, the subject of privacy is an undercurrent waiting to simmer over.

No one knows how this will brim over, if at all; but sizing/fitting solution providers are playing it safe.

Maintaining user privacy is a top priority for Israel-based Sizer Technologies. Outlines its Vice-President of Marketing, Nicole Levitt. "Before a user scans with Sizer, they must read and approve our privacy policy and terms of service (if we have created a white label app for a retailer/brand then it would be their policy and not Sizer’s). The only data stored by Sizer are the user’s body measurements. Any images captured are immediately deleted as soon as measurements have been calculated. Our processes are also in line with GDPR guidelines."

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). It imposes obligations on organisations anywhere, so long as they target or collect data related to people in the EU. The GDPR came into effect in May 2018, at a time when the sizing/fitting sector was beginning to coalesce, but remains an international benchmark for privacy.

Sebastian Schulze, Founder and CEO of Fit Analytics, too mentions the GDPR for now: "At Fit Analytics and Snap, we are absolutely committed to privacy and security. We emphasise privacy by design: each feature and product that touches user data is reviewed by a privacy lawyer and a privacy engineer during the design and development phases, and no feature is released unless our privacy team approves it. We adhere to international privacy laws and make adjustments when new regulations come into effect. Our data privacy practices have been aligned with the principles underpinning the GDPR for a long time."

But, will there be something beyond GDPR? As Nikita Dobrynin, Founder and CEO of Kiev-based AstraFit, points out: "Any (specific) legal regulation is yet to be created; so, we are keeping our eyes on the matter. Our own solution keeps our user's data closed; so, even the shops cannot access them. That said, I think that it's going to be similar to what we see in social media, like Facebook, where users can decide if they want to share their data and who can possibly see it."

Eric Best, Co-Founder and CEO of Seattle-headquartered SoundCommere, delineates how things are working: "Digging into this concept of zero-party' data, it's a phrase born out of the industry moving away from third-party collection tools like browser cookies and device IDs towards first-party data like 'my online' and 'in store purchase' histories. Zero-party takes first-party data one step further, as brands ask shoppers to proactively share preferences (via web form survey or similar) to help the brand create more accurate personalized and curated experiences."

Meanwhile, companies are going by their sensibilities. Tel Aviv-based MySize—its Chief Product & Operations Officer Billy Pardo asserts—is "the most secure sizing solution on the market by design. Our unique selling point is that we’re algorithm-based, meaning consumers don’t need to have pictures snapped of themselves half-naked, which is indeed a privacy issue and compounded by the fact that it usually requires another person taking the photo. With our algorithm, it’s simply reduced to data points that are securely stored and encrypted to reduce the risk of a violation of privacy to as low as humanly possible.

"And lastly, in terms of the brands themselves being able to leverage the information, it’s possible to do that without personal data being accessed both via compliance and technologies used across industries, such as homomorphic encryption, which is commonly deployed in ad-tech, for example. The latter allows information to remain fully encrypted while being leveraged by third party uses, such as suggesting similar styles in their same size."

In distant San Francisco where Bold Metrics is located, its Co-Founder and COO Morgan Linton is taking matters seriously, but also has an idea to share. "We currently do not collect any PII (personal identifiable information) from shoppers using our solution. That said, brands do have this data and I do think this is where Web 3.0 and NFTs in particular provide a compelling solution. If you keep your body data in an NFT in your wallet, this data can be used to generate size recommendations without a brand ever knowing any of your body measurement.

"In a Web 2.0 world, your data is centralised, often with brands knowing everything about you, your shopping habits, your body, etc. In the Web 3.0 world, your data is decentralised and you control your own data, who has access to it, and how it's used. We are already seeing some of the world's most innovative brands hire Web 3.0 strategists and spinning up Metaverse teams, and with these moves comes a whole new way to look at privacy online. As you can tell, in my opinion, that future can't come fast enough!"

Nevertheless—so far—privacy issues in this space have not yet flared up into any controversy worth the name, but not much research has been done on the subject either. There is also no credible data on what end-consumers think or feel about sharing immensely personal data. As Dobrynin had remarked, this is something everyone will keep an eye on.