As research that we recently carried out shows, more than 1 in 5 Britons have more than ten online accounts, which is easy to understand when you consider how much we use the Internet in our daily lives.
Nowadays, we have a huge amount of personal information online. We are inundated with information, receiving hundreds of emails every day both at work and to our personal email addresses, checking Facebook and Twitter messages and updates, checking our bank accounts and even shopping for a last minute gift.
Now that we have such a high level of personal data online, are we starting to lost control of it? Is online media and communication taking our power away from us and placing it in the hands of businesses?
Marketers have access to more of our information than ever. All the data we put into online forms, the information on our Facebook profiles, plus the photos that we share on Flickr all enable businesses to build up a more comprehensive consumer profile, learning more about us than ever through our online footprint. They can then use this to send out carefully targeted communications that correspond to consumers’ interests and preferences.
However, most consumers are not aware of how much of their data businesses are able to collect and businesses have not yet perfected a technique of collating consumers’ combined personal and professional online data.
This data is also easily accessible. For instance, social networking website Twitter recommends that users keep their messages public so that everybody can see them and so that they can fully interact with other users. Similarly with Facebook, users often share huge volumes of personal information with friends on the website in order to keep them updated, but how much of this is in their control?
Arguably, consumers still have a degree of control as to what they choose to publish online. Facebook, for example, has strict privacy settings that enable its users to customise the details that other people and businesses can see. Moreover, Internet users are starting to understand the complex rules when subscribing to websites, choosing to ‘opt in’ or ‘opt out’ so that they can control how much information they want to share.
Of course, having a large amount of personal and professional information online and easily accessible is convenient. Creating a diverse yet consistent online profile is important both for consumers and businesses. It means that consumers can create a broad online identity that spans both personal and professional interests, whether it is joining a tennis club, searching for a job online or building professional relationships.
However, the main disadvantage of consumers placing all of their information online – and spread across so many accounts – is that this has led to an increased risk of security attacks. The now notorious Sony Playstation security breach earlier this year, which resulted in the personal information of more than 75 million users being compromised, shows the growing importance of data and how it is vital that consumers keep their personal information secure.
Worryingly, more than 40 per cent of consumers that we surveyed admit that they ‘skim-read’ Terms and Conditions documents online, which may mean them inadvertently agreeing to volunteer information they would not prefer to give to businesses. Having said this, businesses do not have access to all consumer data and are only able to access information if they have the individual’s consent.
So how can consumers and businesses work together to keep personal information secure? Consumers can do several things. Firstly, although 20 per cent of surveyed consumers confessed that they use their mother’s maiden name as a password, they can instantly increase their online security by using several passwords across different accounts. Google recently launched an interesting campaign to encourage users to select obscure passwords based on acronyms of favourite quotations, in a bid to make users more aware of the importance of passwords.
Another way that consumers can make sure they manage their information securely online is by adjusting Internet settings for maximum security. Even sharing seemingly minor personal details can leave consumers at risk of identity theft, so it is essential to take measures so that personal details remain secure.
Using reliable and secure payment methods and websites such as PayPal also helps to reduce the risk of sensitive financial information going astray. With the growth of mobile technology, apps have also become a target for those looking to extract sensitive information. Sixty per cent of consumers we surveyed feel that their online information is safe, but by taking steps to ensure that mobile devices are secure and downloading apps that do not contain malware, consumers can further reduce the risk of a security breach.
Businesses need to also play their part by making sure that their website and correspondence are secure, including making terms and conditions clear. Our research shows that a third of businesses are already taking responsibility for this, encouraging customers to regularly update their security information.
Our research revealed that more than 50 per cent of businesses and consumers believe that information security is a joint responsibility that should be shared between businesses and individuals. It would be unrealistic to suggest that information can be 100 per cent secure all of the time, but if consumers take responsibility for knowing where their information is going and businesses use this data responsibly, it will help to considerably reduce the risk of a security breach and encourage trust.
