Quoting from P. S. News Edition Number 551f. Updated Friday 19 May 2017. http://www.psnews.com.au/aps/551/news/public-survey-finds-privacy-concerns?utm_source=aps551&utm_medium=email&utm_content=news1&utm_campaign=newsletter_aps
Public survey finds privacy concerns
A national survey on people’s attitudes to privacy, released by the Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner, has found that most respondents are concerned about online privacy but few are doing enough to protect themselves.
As a result the Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim says both businesses and consumers “have work to do”.
The 2017 Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey, released by Mr Pilgrim for Privacy Awareness Week, reveals that 69 per cent of respondents said they felt more concerned about their online privacy than they did five years ago; 83 per cent believed privacy risks were greater online than offline.
However, the survey also showed they were not using existing privacy tools to protect themselves online as well as they could.
Mr Pilgrim said both individual responsibility and better business practice had a role to play to ensure people got the best privacy protection.
“It’s encouraging to see that Australians are alert to privacy risks, but we need to convert awareness into action and use the options already available to us to protect our personal information,” Mr Pilgrim said.
“While 61 per cent of us check website security, our results found that over 65 per cent of Australians do not read privacy policies, and half do not regularly adjust privacy settings on social media, or clear their browsing history.”
He said these were options could be used to better protect privacy.
Commissioner finds work to be done
“If you are shopping or socialising online I encourage you to take the time to protect your privacy first,” Mr Pilgrim said.
“For businesses, these results show there is still work to do to make privacy easy for customers to manage. Those long-winded privacy notices and complex settings need to be replaced by clear language and point-in-time notifications.”
The survey showed that one quarter of respondents regretted sharing a social media post and more than 26 per cent knew someone who had been the victim of identity theft.
The survey found that people believed the biggest risks to privacy were online services (including social media), followed by ID fraud and theft, data breaches and security and risks to financial data.
Privacy Awareness Week, which ends today (19 May) is an annual initiative of the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities Forum.
The 51-page survey report can be accessed at this PS News link. https://www.oaic.gov.au/media-and-speeches/video-and-audio/australian-community-attitudes-to-privacy-survey-2017
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