New research shows that NSA revelations, identity theft and hackings have left 7 out of 10 people concerned about their privacy in the UK.
A string of high profile data leaks and attacks involving large companies such as British Airways and the Sony Pictures have kept data protection in the forefront of the media.
This statistic comes from YouGov’s latest research, where the organisation interviewed over 2,000 British adults. Research also showed that 32% of respondents would also be willing to pay to protect their information, with 29% of individuals feeling that it was their own responsibility to protect their information.
The change in attitudes is thought to have come from more and more personal information being required to sign up for online services, with around 70% of those participating in the survey sharing their name, address and date of birth when signing up to a new service. This information is often considered part of the ‘secret’ information used to verify a person’s identity for a number of services.
Garreth Cameron from the information commissioner’s office commented:
“Consumers are becoming much more aware of the need to protect their personal data online and even though this survey shows they might be prepared to pay to do that, it is still ultimately the responsibility of the businesses who hold that data to make sure they follow the laws around data protection. Businesses should be doing everything they can to keep information safe by investing in consumer privacy online, both in terms of education, increased protection and good practice.”
The post Data protection concerns continue appeared first on virtualDCS Blog.
