The majority of the Swedes who took part in a survey conducted on 2019, stated they were concerned that their online information was not kept secure by websites (67 percent). 31 percent of the respondents disagreed with that statement.

This statistic displays the concerns over personal data protection by websites in the European Union (EU) as of 2019. During the survey period, it was founds that 68 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that personal information was not kept secure by websites.

The majority of the Danes who took part in a survey conducted on 2019, stated they were concerned that their online personal information was not kept secure by websites (67 percent). 31 percent of the respondents disagreed with that statement.

This statistic displays the concerns over personal data protection by websites in the United Kingdom (UK) as of October 2019. During the survey period, it was founds that 71 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that personal information was not kept secure by websites.

As of 2019, 60 percent of the interviewed Finns agreed that their personal information was not kept secure by websites. In contrast, 38 percent disagreed with the statemen in the evaluated period.

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.

As of September 2024, 75 percent of the 100 most visited websites in the United States shared personal data with advertising 3rd parties, even when users opted out. Moreover, 70 percent of them drop advertising 3rd party cookies even when users opt out.

This statistic displays the results of a survey on the share of individuals expressing privacy concerns regarding their personal data on the internet in Italy in 2016. During the survey period, it was found that 91.5 percent of the respondents reported that the use of the internet exposes each one to be tracked and followed up while 66.3 percent stated that privacy was not a real problem.

This statistic shows the results of a survey about the share of users reading privacy policies or terms and conditions for internet sites or apps in Australia as of August 2018. During the survey period, around 31 percent of respondents stated to never read the terms and conditions or privacy policy of a website, compared to five percent of respondents claiming to read them every time.

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 (36 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.

As much as 73 percent of French respondents considered the security of personal data as important in the telecommunication sector and about 64 percent in e-commerce in 2021. The French were also questioned on the level of attention they paid to the processing of their personal data on the internet in 2021. That year, more than 45 percent mentioned being quite attentive to it.

A July 2022 survey of American adults found that 47 percent of responding online payment users aged 18 to 49 years were somewhat confident that payment apps or sites keep their information safe from hackers or unauthorized users. Among those aged 50 years and older, almost four in ten were a little or not at all concerned about this.

As changes in GDPR and the protection of personal data have become important topics in the lives of French people, the source had asked them if they had ever wondered about the country in which their personal data was stored and processed. Thus, more than half of respondents did not ever question the country in which their data was stored. This survey reveals what French people thought that the country of origin of different popular online services were. For LeBonCoin, for instance, 73 percent considered the site to be from France. About 70 percent were aware that Amazon was an U.S. based service.

In 2023, the number of data compromises in the United States stood at 3,205 cases. Meanwhile, over 353 million 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 2022, healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing were the three industry sectors that recorded most data breaches. The number of healthcare data breaches in the United States has gradually increased within the past few years. In the financial sector, data compromises increased almost twice between 2020 and 2022, while manufacturing saw an increase of more than three times in data compromise incidents. 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 changes in GDPR and the protection of personal data have become important topics in the lives of French people, the source had asked them if they were willing to refuse to use an online service because the information provided was not clear on how their personal data would be processed. Thus, about half of respondents mentioned probably not using that website, as a result to the unsure information.

According to a 2020 survey on information privacy in Australia, 56 percent of respondents reported that they often checked that a website was secure before providing personal information details. This was the most common action taken in an effort to protect personal data privacy. In comparison, 13 percent of respondents provided false personal details.

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.

A February 2023 survey in the United Kingdom (UK) found that around 30 percent of respondents felt more wary of what they were reading when they knew the website was tracking their personal information. Another 22 percent said they felt more nervous, while over nine percent felt happier knowing their data was being tracked.

According to a 2020 survey on information privacy in Australia, 37 percent of respondents stated they were very uncomfortable with online businesses and platforms tracking their location. A much smaller share of respondents, three percent, stated they felt very comfortable with this practice.

Nearly one in two French adults trust online retailers in protecting their personal data online, a survey from 2022 revealed. Only a meager three percent of surveyed consumers reported a very high trust level, while another 46 percent of online shoppers tended to trust e-commerce sites when it came to data protection.