In times when more than 47 percent of the world’s population uses the Internet, number that is increasing on a monthly basis:
- 2 out of 3 Americans say access to the Internet is a privilege,
- nearly 1 out of 3 Americans say access to the Internet is a human right.
90% of them say that Internet access needs to be safe and secure for all Americans. And, almost everyone, 95% are concerned about businesses collecting and selling personal information without permission.
However only 50% are looking for new ways to safeguard their personal information.
Protecting Online Lives
One third of the consumers value their online life at $100,000 to priceless, and 82% of them say they worry about their online security. 73% want additional security beyond passwords to protect their accounts.
87% consumers are most concerned about securing their financial accounts, but only 57% of them have added security beyond passwords.
More than half of the consumers experienced a security incident such as a stolen password, online account hacked or personal information compromised. 27% of them estimate that the security incidents cost them $100 to $10,000 or more.
When asked what authentication methods they would most like to use to secure their accounts, the “good” old methods are still prefered:
- personalized security questions (56%)
- two-factor authentication (53%).
- Forced strong passwords  42%
- Behavioral or static biometrics 23%
- Forced updates of passwords 22%
- Security tokens 9%
- None of these 5%
Changing passwords and securing accounts
78% of account holders have a password that has not been changed in a year or longer and 46% use a password that is five years or older. The awareness of frequent change of passwords to prevent account hacks is still pretty low despite the security incidents increasing.
Even though 74% of consumers were familiar with two-factor authentication, only third of them turned to 2FA for one or more accounts in the past 12 months.
Concerns about hacked online accounts
When making an average value of the concerned ones it would be Moderate:
- Extremely concerned 20%
- Very concerned 33%
- Moderately concerned 35%
- Slightly concerned 10%
- Not at all concerned  2%
Who is responsible for protecting online privacy
7 out of 10 Americans are protecting their online privacy more today than a year ago, which shows that they are more worried than last year.
However, when asked who is responsible for protecting THEIR online privacy
- 55% of consumers say companies should have primary responsibility for the security of their online and mobile accounts.
- 1% say the Government should
- 44% say the Account holders themselves
So, with this in mind, only 1 out of 5 Americans is using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to protect their online privacy.
Our Advice
Not only Americans, but everyone else, shouldn’t wait for the government or the service providers to be responsible for their online privacy and cyber security.
They ought to take their cyber security in their own hands and take the advantage of more powerful, sophisticated online privacy protections, like encrypted services.
We are creating encrypted email and data services to protect your online communication.
Sources of data and surveys:
Leave A Comment