Customers aren't ready to receive messages from the insurance industry that are based on the customers' analytics and social media patterns, according to Celent's "Customers Don't Want to Buy Insurance From Big Brother" report.

"Most people will hate receiving messages that imply the organization has gone a step further in understanding their data. Either we're too early, or this must be an opt-in process," says Craig Beattie, senior analyst with Celent's Insurance Group and author of the report, "What surprised us, though, was that each message had people who would love to receive it. Given that this was typically in the younger age groups, we're going to be seeing this kind of interaction in the future."

The survey of 2,642 people in the U.S. and the U.K. seeks to help insurers understand how to recognize groups that would be likely to respond well to 8 potential messages. On a scale of hating these messages to loving them, the mean response to Celent's survey was at best neutral, and, for most of the messages, much closer to the hate end of the scale.