14 DAY TRIAL // A recent survey indicates that Internet users are more concerned about getting hacked than being tracked online.
Data shows that 75 percent of those who answered the survey were concerned about hackers stealing their personal information. Only 54 percent of people were worried about advertisers tracking their browsing history to target them.
The survey was commissioned by the Computer and Communications Industry Association and was conducted by Benenson Strategy Group and American Viewpoint.
Furthermore, when asked which one of the two activities scared them the most, all 1,000 respondents had the same reply – hackers.
That’s explained by previous experience. Half of the people said their personal emails had been breached or that someone they knew had received suspicious emails from someone who had been hacked.
The survey also shows some other numbers that are harder to believe. It says 83 percent of those polled have put passwords on their devices, while 76 percent said they used different passwords for each service. Furthermore, 68 percent said they adjusted the privacy settings of their online accounts, 65 percent disabled cookies on their web browsers and another 65 percent said they read the privacy policies for the websites they visited.
While the first set was easier to believe, let’s face it – no one actually reads the privacy policies for websites, much less this many people.
Previous polls have indicated much different numbers, with very few people using different passwords for different services and even less knowing how to adjust the privacy settings on social media. Web browser cookies continue to be a mystery to many Internet users, while the extent that most people go to regarding reading the privacy policies is checking the box before clicking on the necessary button to go forward.
The best bet is that all 1,000 people who answered the survey are quite tech savvy.