Only 32 per cent of consumers in Việt Nam believe their personal data will be treated in a trustworthy manner by organisations offering digital services, according to a study recently released by Microsoft and IDC Asia Pacific.

The study, “Understanding Consumer Trust in Digital Services in Asia Pacific”, aims to understand consumers’ expectations of trust, uncover their experiences with digital services, and provide tangible insights to organisations to help bridge the gap by learning about and sustaining the trust of consumers in the digital world.

The study said that today, almost all transactions and interactions in Việt Nam, from organisations and government agencies, to banks and retailers, are becoming digital.

At the same time, consumers are becoming more aware of cybersecurity risks and risks to privacy of their personal data, not just from cybercriminals but also from organisations holding on to their personal data.

“The upside for organisations with a trusted digital platform is tremendous as Việt Nam is one of the fastest-growing digital services markets in Asia Pacific where almost all of the transactions and interactions here will be digital in the near future,” said Phạm Thế Trường, country general director of Microsoft Vietnam.

“However, despite consumers’ increasing reliance on digital services, there is still a considerable trust gap that needs to be addressed. Most consumers still do not perceive organisations to be trusted data stewards. I urge business leaders to do more to understand what drives consumer trust and focus on how they can build trust and make it a key competitive advantage for their digital services,” he added.

The study, which surveyed 453 consumers in Việt Nam, asked respondents to provide their opinions on the five elements of trust jointly defined by IDC and Microsoft – privacy, security, reliability, ethics, and compliance – when using digital services.

The study revealed that consumers feel that all five elements of trust are almost equally important to them.

Specifically, security (90 per cent) and privacy (89 per cent) emerged as the top two most important elements. Consumers also have the highest expectations of trust from financial services institutions, followed by government and education organisations.

The study also found that establishing a trusted platform needs to be a priority in organisations’ strategy for digital services as only 4 per cent of consumers prefer to transact with an organization that offers a cheaper but less trusted digital platform.

Additionally, close to three out of four or 72 per cent of consumers said they would recommend a trusted digital service to others even if the cost was higher.  

Despite this, the study uncovered that the majority of consumers, about 60 per cent in Việt Nam, have had their trust compromised when using digital services. The top three trust elements that caused consumers to stop using digital services were security, reliability and privacy.

More importantly, the study established that consumers will take action if they have a negative trust experience. Nearly three out of five of the respondents would switch to another organisation, while 30 per cent would reduce the usage of the digital service. More than one out of four (28 per cent) consumers would stop using the digital service altogether, according to the report.