The purpose of designating special days on the calendar is to avail the opportunity to raise awareness about particular events or topics worldwide.
Since 2007 January 28th marks the International Data Privacy Day. On January 28 each year, we commemorate International Data Privacy Day. The aim as always was to raise awareness among businesses and users about the importance of their data’s privacy and protection online.
Entrust Corporation, a trusted leader in providing identity management, payment, and data protection worldwide, revealed statistics from their survey on internet consumers’ perceptions about data privacy and security. The company published the survey’s findings on 2021’s Data Privacy Day, January 28th.
For this survey, Entrust questioned 500 U.S and 500 U.K based smartphone users. The study’s results unveil that about 80% of consumers are skeptical about their data’s privacy and protection on the internet space. Still, there are only a few who want to do something about it.
Report’s findings
According to the survey’s findings, about 64% of the respondents admitted their tendency of sharing their personal information with an app to get more relevant and/or convenient services.
It also says that about 83% of consumers are comfortable sharing their biometric details (e.g.fingerpints and facial recognition) with third-party apps in exchange for better services. Moreover, to achieve more transparency and control over their data, about 61% share their personal information with these applications.
Although most internet consumers feel comfortable sharing their personal information to get more advantages, they still worry over their data safety, which is continuously growing.
Entrust’s report also reveals that many people (64% to be exact) have mentioned that most of their concerns mounted to a higher level, especially in the past 12 months. Many consumers (60%) blame every other day’s news stories about some data security breaches and the targeted ads based on their web surfing as the reasons behind their heightened worries.
Concern over data privacy won’t do much itself
The report also mentions a riveting fact about many people (approx 82%) who believe that they take necessary steps to keep their information secure, but it is doubtful. Because when Entrust enquired about their routine while downloading a new application, approximately 43% of the individuals disclosed that they do not even read its terms and conditions and instantly accept it.
As it is understandable that many applications’ terms and conditions provide lengthy and complicated narration that an educated user needs to have at least half an hour to read them—the majority of the people who took part in the survey reason the same for not reading it. On the other hand, 28% of the individuals reasoned the wording’s complexity for not reading these terms and conditions.
Survey’s other significant findings
Traditional news and media outlets impact consumers to protect their personal information. Entrust reports that a significant amount of people(38%) turn to old-fashioned news and media outlets to find ways to secure their personal data.
Having said that, they do not entirely believe in the authenticity of the information that these sources provide. According to the survey, consumers prioritize the information they receive from their family, friends, and established data privacy organizations on the top of their list. Such news, video streaming, and social networking sites rank at the bottom of their trustworthy sources list.
Prominent brands impact the consumer’s trust issues: According to the findings, a significantly low number of people are somewhat comfortable sharing their data with well-known brands. 81% of individuals do not trust these brands for securing their information.
Users reason their distrust with daily news of security breaches and malicious hackers’ attacks on such brands. Entrust reports that 31% of respondents admitted to actively monitoring the news outlets for any potential attack on their information.
Comparatively, UK consumers trust the sources they have for data protection more than those living in the United States. The questionnaire also asked the respondents’ level of confidence in their government agencies, banks, and employers with their data to remain untouched.
Surprisingly, the United Kingdom residents trust their employers relatively more (35%) than their counterparts living in the U.S (27%) to keep their information secure.
In the same way, 31% of the UK residents believe in their government departments than that of 19% of the U.S citizens. Similarly, Britain’s financial institutions got more satisfactory reviews (41%) in terms of data security from their users, whereas banks working in the United States reached 35% acceptance reviews from their consumers.
Editorial note: The news was updated on Feb 10, 2022, to update the broken source link.
