Nearly half of people in the United States have online privacy concerns that stops them from conducting online shopping and banking, according to a survey conducted by federal telecommunication agency has revealed.
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Data collection, fraud, theft, tracking by government, credit card fraud, identity threat and lost control of personal data are some of the primary fears that discourage almost 45 percent of the American households from conducting activities online. These are the findings of a survey conducted by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA).
In today's modern and technologically advanced society, a majority of people rely on the Internet to conduct certain activities from the comfort of their home. However, online privacy concerns stops a large fraction of these people from conducting activities that could put them in danger, including online banking, e-commerce and sharing personal thoughts about political matters or controversial issues on social networking sites.
NTIA's analysis of the data has come at a time when cybersecurity incidents, data leaks, data breaches and controversies surrounding data privacy have become more prevalent. It is because of these concerns that some Americans have started to limit their use of the Internet. At least, that is what the NTIA data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau suggests.
During the survey, the U.S. Census Bureau asked privacy and security-related questions from 41,000 households. Each household reported having at least one member who uses Internet.
The team found that more than 19 percent of the Internet-using households reported being affected by either identity threat, online security breach or any other malicious activity in the last 12 months before the survey. The team, thus, concluded that the biggest factor that raises fears of online security among Internet consumers is a prior negative experience in the online world.
The NTIA report further explains that a household is more likely to avoid conducting a particular activity online if that had privacy concerns related to the same activity. For example, those who feared identity theft avoided conducting financial transactions online in 12 months prior to the survey period.
The following video discusses the future of Internet privacy: