As of the second quarter of 2025, **** percent of internet users in Spain stated being concerned about companies' misuse of their personal data. Portugal ranked second, with **** percent, while Greece followed, with around **** percent of online users worried about improper use of their personal online data.

In 2024, the number of data compromises in the United States stood at 3,158 cases. Meanwhile, over 1.35 billion individuals were affected in the same year by data compromises, including data breaches, leakage, and exposure. While these are three different events, they have one thing in common. As a result of all three incidents, the sensitive data is accessed by an unauthorized threat actor. Industries most vulnerable to data breaches Some industry sectors usually see more significant cases of private data violations than others. This is determined by the type and volume of the personal information organizations of these sectors store. In 2024 the financial services, healthcare, and professional services were the three industry sectors that recorded most data breaches. Overall, the number of healthcare data breaches in some industry sectors in the United States has gradually increased within the past few years. However, some sectors saw decrease. Largest data exposures worldwide In 2020, an adult streaming website, CAM4, experienced a leakage of nearly 11 billion records. This, by far, is the most extensive reported data leakage. This case, though, is unique because cyber security researchers found the vulnerability before the cyber criminals. The second-largest data breach is the Yahoo data breach, dating back to 2013. The company first reported about one billion exposed records, then later, in 2017, came up with an updated number of leaked records, which was three billion. In March 2018, the third biggest data breach happened, involving India’s national identification database Aadhaar. As a result of this incident, over 1.1 billion records were exposed.

As of the third quarter of 2022, 32 percent of online users worldwide worried about how companies used their personal data online. A further 31 percent said they preferred to be anonymous online. The share of those concerned about how the government tracks them online was 21 percent.

When it came to online data sharing, German internet users presented the highest awareness among other European countries of how much personal data they were giving away. As of 2023, approximately ** percent of German internet users reported they were aware of the amount of personal information they shared on the internet and social networks. Users in France followed, with ** percent of users reporting they were aware of the amount of data they shared. In comparison, less than ** percent of users in Italy reported the same level of awareness.

Many internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) are already aware that their personal data is being collected by social media companies. Despite this, results from a 2020 survey highlight that the majority (** percent) of respondents believed that their offline conversations were safe. ** percent also felt confident that their online media consumption was not being tracked. A significant share (** percent) did not think that their purchase history was being monitored, while over half of all responding adults did not believe that their browsing history, location, and social media behavior was being tracked at all.

As of the second quarter of 2025, the worldwide demographic group most concerned about improper use of their data by companies were internet users aged*************. Over **** in *** internet users of this demographic group stated to have such concerns.

As of the third quarter of 2023, over half of the internet users in France stated declining cookies on websites at least some of the time. A further 42.4 percent said they worried about how companies might use their personal data, while 31.8 percent reported using a tool to block advertisements on the internet at least some of the time.

A global survey conducted between November 2022 and January 2023 revealed that seven in ten respondents had taken steps to protect their online identity. Those who enabled multi-factor authentication were 30 percent. Additionally, 28 percent said they changed default settings on devices. On the other hand, 30 percent said they had not done anything to protect their digital identity.

Although a majority of internet users aged between 18 and 75 years in the United Kingdom (UK) are still skeptical when it comes to personal data being collected by companies, a small share (** percent) would be willing to share this data in return for financial compensation. These types of data mainly included purchase history and location data, while a slightly smaller percentage stated they were willing to sell their browsing history and online media consumption to companies.

In 2024, around ** percent of internet users in Finland expressed concerns about the misuse of their personal data on the internet. The figure has seen an uptick of *** percent since the previous year.

As of October 2025, 6.04 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, which amounted to 73.2 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.66 billion, or 68.7 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 2025. In the Netherlands, Norway, and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of February 2025. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Eastern Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide—over 1.34 billion at the latest count. Southern Asia ranked second, with around 1.2 billion internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2024, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in African countries, with around a 10-percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller usage gap between these two genders. As of 2024, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years old across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most considerable usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group of 15 to 24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

This statistic presents the share of internet users in the United States who feel comfortable about companies selling their personal data for online advertising purposes as of May 2018. According to the findings, ** percent of respondents aging from 18 to 29 years stated that they were very uncomfortable with the fact that companies were able to sell their personal data for online advertising purposes. Only eight percent of them reported to being very comfortable with these activities.

According to a survey among adult internet users in Spain in the 3rd quarter of 2024, around **** percent of respondents expressed concern about what was real or fake on the internet. About **** percent of respondents expressed concern about how companies used their personal data. Around **** percent stated that they declined cookies at least some of the time, while **** percent used a tool to block advertisements on the internet.

A survey conducted in the United States, between July and October 2024, found that the highest percentage of consumers were worried about social media platforms using their personal data. Additionally, the survey unveiled that more users were worried that the U.S. government could use their personal data, rather than foreign governments. Search engines and internet browsers ranked high up among third parties, triggering concerns of personal data use.

According to a survey of adult internet users in Italy, around 53.1 percent of respondents expressed concern about what is real or fake on the internet. Almost 54 percent stated that they declined cookies on websites, while 34 percent of respondents expressed concern about how companies might use their personal data, Furthermore, over 27 percent of respondents said they used a tool to block advertisements on the internet at least some of the time

A global survey conducted between November 2022 and January 2023 found that around seven in ten respondents felt more vulnerable to identity theft at the time of the survey than they did a few years ago. Additionally, 53 percent said the steps they currently take were sufficient to avoid their identity being stolen.

The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is forecast to increase rapidly. While it was estimated at ***** zettabytes in 2025, the forecast for 2029 stands at ***** zettabytes. Thus, global data generation will triple between 2025 and 2029. Data creation has been expanding continuously over the past decade. In 2020, the growth was higher than previously expected, caused by the increased demand due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as more people worked and learned from home and used home entertainment options more often.

According to a May 2023 survey of internet users in the United States, the share of Republicans or Republican-leaning individuals who were concerned about how the government used their personal data had increased by 14 percent since 2019. The concern level among Democrats, instead, has seen almost no changes. Overall, seven in ten U.S. adults said they were worried about how government entities might use their personal data.

The largest reported data leakage as of January 2025 was the Cam4 data breach in March 2020, which exposed more than 10 billion data records. The second-largest data breach in history so far, the Yahoo data breach, occurred in 2013. The company initially reported about one billion exposed data records, but after an investigation, the company updated the number, revealing that three billion accounts were affected. The National Public Data Breach was announced in August 2024. The incident became public when personally identifiable information of individuals became available for sale on the dark web. Overall, the security professionals estimate the leakage of nearly three billion personal records. The next significant data leakage was the March 2018 security breach of India's national ID database, Aadhaar, with over 1.1 billion records exposed. This included biometric information such as identification numbers and fingerprint scans, which could be used to open bank accounts and receive financial aid, among other government services.

Cybercrime - the dark side of digitalization As the world continues its journey into the digital age, corporations and governments across the globe have been increasing their reliance on technology to collect, analyze and store personal data. This, in turn, has led to a rise in the number of cyber crimes, ranging from minor breaches to global-scale attacks impacting billions of users – such as in the case of Yahoo. Within the U.S. alone, 1802 cases of data compromise were reported in 2022. This was a marked increase from the 447 cases reported a decade prior. The high price of data protection As of 2022, the average cost of a single data breach across all industries worldwide stood at around 4.35 million U.S. dollars. This was found to be most costly in the healthcare sector, with each leak reported to have cost the affected party a hefty 10.1 million U.S. dollars. The financial segment followed closely behind. Here, each breach resulted in a loss of approximately 6 million U.S. dollars - 1.5 million more than the global average.

The French were questioned on the level of attention they paid to the processing of their personal data on the internet in 2021. That year, more than ** percent mentioned being quite attentive, compared to only **** percent who were not attentive at all. In 2018, more than ** percent were very attentive compared to only *** percent who admitted not to be attentive at all to it. This indicates a decrease in attentiveness over the years.