In 2026, the race for data is as intense as any modern gold rush, thanks to the explosive growth of AI. Tech companies want to know your jeans size, how you sleep, even what parts of a store you’re drawn to upon entering. At the same time, fashion brands are chasing personalization and promising it as a benefit to improve the shopping experience both on and offline.

Much of AI’s promise for the future of retail and shopping — from hyper-personalized online recommendations and brand marketing, to in-store clienteling that pre-empts your needs — thrives on as much data input as possible. It’s in the interest of companies like Meta and Google to find new ways to collect more and more data — their business models rely on advertising for most of their revenue — and they’re investing heavily in data storage to stay competitive, increasing their spending this year by 77% to a record $725 billion. As AI makes personalization in both advertising and clienteling more commoditized, both tech companies and fashion brands need evermore data to compete.

Customers, however, are showing signs of fatigue around how much data they’re willing to give. They’re also questioning whether giving away their data is worth the benefits they receive in return — benefits that the entire data grab is predicated on. When Vogue Business surveyed hundreds of Vogue and GQ readers worldwide about their AI use, only 1% find AI shopping recommendations “entirely useful”, fewer than a quarter (24%) trust the recommendations and summaries made by AI, and only 3% look to AI chatbots for style inspiration. Respondents reported outputs that feel misaligned or generic, making it clear the execution of AI tools is what’s holding adoption back so far.

Now, luxury customers in particular are going out of their way to keep their data private, via opting out of data gathering, targeted ads, and even subscribing to encrypted digital services. More affluent and educated consumers are increasingly clued up on what increased personalization requires, which is bad news for luxury brands that rely on delivering a high-touch, hyper-personalized client experience.

“It’s a very fine line for brands to tread, because, obviously, there’s a lot of big business involved, but more and more people are aware of a certain abuse that’s been happening,” says Carol Aquino, head of consumer tech at WGSN.

If privacy is the new luxury, how can brands lean in?

Agency is the new inequality

The privacy and data use of fashion companies using AI was the fourth biggest concern among Vogue Business AI survey respondents. Big Tech’s processing of personal data is increasingly part of the cultural conversation, as consumers grow frustrated by the volume and increasingly personal targeted ads on social media — changes that have been accelerated by AI. It’s inspired various “offline” movements among younger consumers, in particular, who are increasingly turning to alternative platforms like Reddit and Pinterest, which they perceive as less commercial.

This is driving a new industry shift among social platforms and toward paid, ad-free experiences as a perk for those who can afford them. YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook have all recently introduced paid subscriptions for ad-free versions of their platforms (which are known to target customers by mining their data), while newer platforms like Vero and Mewe are built around that model from the start.

“It’s definitely the younger and more affluent consumer who’s empowered to make these decisions, because there’s a very strong correlation with understanding these privacy issues and actually understanding how these tools work,” Aquino says.

More personalized recommendations within shopping chatbots, more accurate health insights, and the ability to go screen-free are all cited by tech companies as convenience gains for consumers thanks to AI. “There’s something to be said of not all data and information being equal — some things, like health, are more important, where other things like shopping could perhaps be OK to monetize,” says Patricia Egger, head of security at Proton, which charges a monthly subscription to customers to use its privacy-enhanced encrypted email. “If you’re not paying with your money, you’re paying with your data, so you’re paying anyway. But the decision of how you are paying is something people should be able to make.”

Choosing privacy is a brand opportunity

Beyond paid subscriptions for a more private digital life, more affluent consumers are seeking out brands that deploy privacy as a luxury USP.

Consider smart glasses that don’t raise surveillance questions, priced at a premium. Even Realities’s smart glasses come with a smart health tracking ring, but the glasses don’t contain a camera — enhanced privacy that Even Realities CEO Will Wang says is the differentiator that justifies their higher price than incumbent Meta. The Chinese brand’s glasses start at $599, while Meta’s standard model retail up to $379.

“There’s very little proven value so far for including a camera in people’s glasses, and it’s at the cost of a lot of privacy issues, so we felt we wanted to take ours in a more respectable direction to try and be more cautious about the data we’re gathering,” Wang says, adding that the large part of Even Realities’s customers are high-net-worth individuals and those in the political or public sphere.

“Treating privacy and data with respect resonates really well with our clientele — and I think it’s important to treat it as part of the user experience, wording legal agreements clearly, explaining how and why any data is collected, and giving multiple opportunities to opt out,” he says.

Emerging consumer-facing applications of AI in online and physical retail present fashion brands with an opportunity to differentiate with a pro-privacy stance. Where technologists and analysts argue AI will enable better in-store clienteling, thanks to store associates accessing fast and abundant data that can pre-empt a customer’s needs before they even step in-store, as this tech becomes commoditized, brands that stick to direct, relationship-led selling that is clearly not informed by aggressive data capture could resonate more with high-end consumers.

With the decline of cookies and tighter regulation like Europe’s GDPR, luxury brands have already reduced their dependencies on external ad networks, building closed ecosystems, apps, and private client platforms instead. Ralph Lauren, for example, has launched a dedicated shopping app with an AI personal stylist, in an attempt to make the brand’s experiments with AI feel more prestigious and private than a mainstream AI assistant.

Where brands do collect data to enhance personalization, Aquino says they should focus on collecting less, more deliberately and transparently, and within controlled relationships. “Consumers will increasingly read privacy as this proxy for seriousness, that the brand takes them seriously,” she says. Luxury brands can differentiate by explaining how and why they use customer data in simple terms, and by giving consumers continuous opportunities to opt in or out.

Where the trend is starting with the more discerning customer, experts say privacy will move from a luxury to a baseline over time, as more brands catch on to the trend. “It’s one of those symbiotic effects,” says Aquino. “Brands will start looking at it from the angle of ‘this will grow’, as it spreads out and gets broader attention.”