Survey: Data Privacy, Security Don't Affect User Behavior

Lots of people complain about data privacy and security on the Internet, but few actually stop using apps for that reason. You probably already sensed that, but a new survey from open source collaboration and data management vendor Open-Xchange has quantified the actions users will actually take in response to data privacy concerns.

The survey, which is based on responses from 3,000 users users of Internet applications in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, makes clear that data privacy issues matter for a significant number of Internet users. Overall, 22 percent of respondents reported having stopped using at least one major Internet app or service for privacy reasons.

Facebook (FB) topped the list of apps that users reported having abandoned. It accounted for nearly twice as many such users as the other major Internet platforms cited in the survey, which included Google (GOOG), Twitter and Dropbox.

Perhaps the most remarkable trend the survey helps to quantify, however, isn't how many people have stopped using services, or what the services were. Instead, it's how few users have actually quit major Web apps, despite the explosion of revelations in recent years about government-sponsored Internet spying, as well as breaches of personal data on servers at a long list of businesses. If only 22 percent of people have actually stopped using a service because they think it puts their privacy at risk, the already scary headlines about data security online apparently will have to get much more horrific before a majority of people change their behavior.

By extension, for enterprises, the survey underlines how difficult it is to make users take data privacy seriously. If most Internet users continue to use Facebook, Google and the like in their personal lives despite likely knowing that the security of the data they put there may not be assured, they also may undertake similarly risky behavior with enterprise data, even if they are told not to or educated in best practices.

There's also an interesting national dimension here, by the way. In Germany, 35.5 percent of respondents to the survey claimed they had stopped using a service for data privacy reasons, while in the United States, the figure was as low as 13 percent. Do Americans care less about data privacy? Are they less worried about it because most of the Internet companies with which they share personal information are based in the United States, or because they have more faith in the ability of the law to protect their data? Are they just more addicted to Facebook than the rest of the world? The survey didn't seek to answer these questions, but the varying figures for different national groups suggest cultural or political factors may play a role in how people think about data privacy.

Of course, in a way, Internet apps are like smoking. They're really hard to quit once you start, even if you know how bad they are for you. So the best thing to do, perhaps, is to avoid signing up for the latest and greatest social media platform, messaging service or what-have-you in the first place.