Are Consumers Becoming Less Willing To Confide?

Confide is a self-destructing message app that leaves your messages in the past with a swipe. What does our fascination with recordless apps mean for business in the future?
Snapchat was the first major social application designed for privacy. Designed to allow us to send pictures which disappear forever after a finite time, the app heralded the arrival of a generation of webizens who are conscious of the content they share online, and businesses should take note..
Confide, the next wave of confidential correspondence, launched 18 months ago for Android and iOS mobile devices. The app allows users to send messages to each other a few words at a time. As you slide your finger along the screen, the text will appear and then dissolve as the reader’s finger moves along the entire message.
This same concept has now been brought to the desktop for both Windows and Mac. Confide founder and CEO, Jon Brod, explained that desktop functionality was part of the plan from the beginning. Like Snapchat, Confide struggles with screenshot availability that could make messages not-so-private. But thanks to Confide’s state-of-the-art software, screenshots will only display a gray screen and not the confidential message.  
Confide is now available in 15 different languages and 180 countries, which shows businesses that privacy is a major concern for Generation Z, the up-and-coming consumers of our future.
We often hear about websites being hacked and personal information being stolen within large corporations and even the US Government, but why is it we’re becoming less willing to share information permanently?
Theory 1: A decline in face-to-face communication.
Technology has made it very easy to communicate effectively through wires rather than face to face. While this might save time and energy it really isn’t the most efficient way to communicate when discussing matters of a private nature. While electronic communication is becoming more and more prevalent, it’s still important to use secure and secret avenues for private conversations.
Theory 2: Oversharing on social media sites.
The word ‘viral’ brings two separate scenarios to mind. The first being a video or post that was intended to be seen by many people: to go viral is to hit the big time with your Instagram picture or Vine video. However, the other situation where one goes viral is not so positive. We often see individuals who have been caught on camera saying or doing something misfortunate, and falls foul of the share button, their act broadcasted around the world. Because this occurrence is so common, others have tended to play it safe when discussing something that has the potential for negative press. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Theory 3: Long-distance conversations are evolving.
Intimate conversations are no longer held exclusively offline thanks to the rising popularity of online dating, and recent trends have shown that more people than ever use the internet to connect with partners over long distances, whether by video, image or text. This is obviously going to require either a lot of trust or secure software, otherwise the man or lady down the street may quickly become an internet star for all the wrong reasons.
What does this mean for businesses?
These trends show that privacy and security is something that much of the population spends time thinking about. This most likely transfers to business deals and brand loyalty too; businesses need to ensure that they are conducting business from a secure site and that their customers know that security is important to them.
To succeed in a world that conducts a major portion of business online, internet security is a must. Anyone who often shops online knows to look for the green padlock in the left hand corner of the address bar before submitting any personal information. This is a symbol that lets shoppers know that there is an SSL certificate on the website.

SSL stands for secure socket layer, meaning that any information sent through the web from that site to your screen is encoded, and only the sender and the receiver have the key to decipher the code. SSL certificates reassure your site visitors that security is important to you and that their information is safe in your hands. As best practice leans more and more towards privacy, an SSL certificate is a must for any business.

To learn more about SSL certificates visit Midphase.com for ultimate site protection.