THE ROLE OF CYBERSECURITY IN ENHANCING TRANSPARENCY AND TRUST IN DIGITAL MARKETING ANALYTICS

Abstract

This paper investigates how cybersecurity enables transparency and trust in the digital marketing analytics. It explores the impact of secure data practices on consumer trust, ethicality of data management, and credibility of an organization in an ever-digitizing business world. The research design was quantitative, and a structured questionnaire was used to conduct the research among 370 respondents who were of different professional background such as: marketing professionals, business analysts, and IT/cybersecurity experts. To gather the required data, the five-point Likert scale was applied, and the results were analyzed based on the descriptive statistics and the measures of central tendency to determine the awareness, transparency, trust, and organizational practices connected to cybersecurity. The findings indicated that there is a good understanding of the value of cybersecurity, with the respondents giving a priority on the role of cybersecurity in creating trust and transparency. The impact on cybersecurity on ethical use of data and consumer confidence were reported to have high levels of agreement. Nevertheless, areas of weakness have been found within organization practices, especially in training of the employees, as well as frequent updates of the policies. All in all, the research confirms that cybersecurity is not just a technical protective measure but an enabling strategic factor of credibility and long-term relationships with customers in digital marketing. The study also gives prominence to the cyberspace as a strategic asset and not a defense mechanism as a growing body of knowledge. It highlights the interdependence of security, transparency and trust and provides viable recommendations on how organizations can improve their competitiveness by being ethical and secure in their marketing analytics practices.