eZ Cash - Behind the Veil

An interesting point came up in our last Marketing Management lecture-the true motive of Dialog eZ Cash. Whether it is merely a convenient mobile payment method or a tool to acquire information about customer behavior was discussed. In this information age, information about the spending patterns of customers is potentially worth millions to organizations. This type of information can be used for targeted advertising. It can bring massive profits to an organization by helping them to better understand  their customers and to cater specifically according to their requirements.

Although Dialog eZ cash is not extremely popular, it's certainly catching on. Despite some concerns about delays and problems in withdrawing cash from merchants, it is undoubtedly a convenient mobile payment method. While the newer payment methods via NFC are quicker and more straightforward, at present only a handful of smartphones used in Sri Lanka are equipped with NFC. In this regard eZ cash scores by being accessible to the masses. This also broadens their source of customer information. Such information is valuable only if it's extensive. Whenever a customer uses eZ cash, information about the transaction amount, place and type gets recorded at the company servers. Users of eZ cash agree to their information being used, stored, analyzed or transferred by Dialog without the consent of the user, when subscribing for the service.

users agree to their information being stored,analyzed and transferred. source: http://www.dialog.lk/content/uploads/pdfs/tc/ez-cash-tc-eng.pdf

Collecting customer information is not necessarily a bad thing. Most of us are familiar with the personalized search results and news feeds in Google and Facebook which  utilize search history, browsing patterns and location to serve personalized information. While some people argue that this is an invasion of privacy, it is often helpful to most of us. Personalized search results bring relevant information quickly. The data collected by eZ cash also could be put into good use like this, to serve customers better and to personalize the telecommunication giant's service.

The flip side to this story is the consequences if this data falls into the wrong hands. It can be used for spamming or in the worst case, for fraud and theft. A security breach or something similar could turn out to be a threat to customers. Dialog would surely be aware of this and have taken necessary measures to avoid such a situation. Still, some people don't feel comfortable about their information being used in this way. But complete anonymity in today's world is impossible to achieve. The best is to be aware and mindful of how your information is used and shared by the services that you use.