Move over Victor Meldrew, when it comes to complaining about data protection issues it seems the younger generations are far more vocal, with those aged 34 and under most likely to act on the powers afforded to them by GDPR.
According to a study by Wilmington Millennium, almost half (48%) of Generation Y and Z have taken some action since GDPR was introduced last May, including requesting their personal information is deleted by an organisation, finding out what personal data is held on them by an organisation or contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to make a complaint.
By comparison only a third of Baby Boomers and a quarter of Generation X have taken similar steps.
Millennials are most likely to ask for their information to be deleted, with one in three saying that they have already done this. This rises to one in five for the rest of the population.
Generation Z are the most likely to both request a data audit (15% compared to an average of 9%) and complain to the ICO, with 18% saying they had contacted the regulator to register a data breach or data processing concern. This compares to just 7.5% for the remainder of the population.
Baby Boomers were the least likely to take any action, with only 1% saying that post GDPR they had contacted the ICO, 3% claiming that they had contacted a business to find out what information is held on them and 15% requesting that their information was removed from a marketing database.
Wilmington Millennium director Karen Pritchard said: “It is interesting that it is the younger generations who are actively protecting their personal information, rather than the older age groups who have been campaigning for greater control over their data rights for years.
“The discrepancy between the age groups is significant – for instance 18% of Generation X versus 1% of Baby Boomers making a complaint to the ICO.
“Despite this, it shows that GDPR is having a positive impact with consumers becoming increasingly data savvy. This is a good thing as our research shows that the majority of people now believe that marketing communications are better than they were prior to May 25 2018.”
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