Why I don’t trust third-party plugins with customer data

I recently had a fascinating conversation with a customer about some of the new server-to-server technology coming out of places like Google for analytics. On the surface, it sounds like the way forward. It’s more secure than client-side JavaScript, it can’t be blocked as easily and it feels like the “modern” way to handle data.

But as we got deeper into the details, it hit me: how do you actually control this?

Depending on your industry, especially in something like Healthcare, you might not want to share a customer’s full profile. Maybe you only want to send an email or a unique identifier. But with these global platforms, you often lose that granular control over what is being sent.

I actually posed a question to a Google representative about Australian data privacy laws. I asked: “If a customer wants their data destroyed, how do we do that across all these integrated systems?”

The answer I got was: “Well, we hash that data, so you no longer have access to what’s in it.”

That begs a massive question: How do you destroy something you can’t find?

The answer is, you can’t.

These global systems are built for a world where laws don’t always marry up to where you are actually operating. You think you are being compliant, but the technology is working against you.

This is why I am such a loud advocate for first-party solutions. When you own the technology and the data stays inside your Salesforce environment, you have actual control. You aren’t “renting” a compliance model from a platform that doesn’t understand your local regulations.

If a customer asks to be forgotten, you can actually find them and delete them. That’s true compliance. Anything else is just digital guesswork.

Stop guessing with your data compliance. See how StoreConnect keeps you in control.