Half of UK consumers believe they are being harmed by big companies gathering large amounts of personal data for internal use, while fewer than one in five reckon the use of data can enhance consumer experiences.
These are two of the key findings of a new global survey into consumer attitudes towards online privacy, commissioned by privacy group Big Brother Watch and conducted by opinion pollster Comres.
It found that 48% of UK respondents believe that companies data-gathering techniques are actually harmful.
That proportion was the second largest of any country, behind only South Korea, where a series of high profile data breaches have evidently eroded public trust in corporate data protection practices.
Meanwhile, only 18% of UK consumers believe that the use of personal data can enhance consumer experiences. This was the third lowest proportion among the countries surveyed, above South Korea and Japan.
Globally 79% of people said they were concerned about their personal privacy online, with India (94%), Brazil (90%) and Spain (90%) showing the highest level of concern. In the UK the figure was 68% while Germany, which has one of the strongest data protection laws of any country, was the only country where a majority (56%) say they are unconcerned about their privacy online.
Big Brother Watch spokesman Nick Pickles claimed that regulation has failed to keep pace with the corporate use of personal data.
“The age of commercial monitoring has moved so rapidly the law and consumer attitudes have struggled to keep up, resulting in the kind of fear that British people have about the harm they may suffer from big businesses,” he said.
Pickles said that the growing number of companies looking to exploit their personal data assets face growing mistrust from consumers.
Earlier this week, Barclays Bank revealed that it is changing the terms and conditions of its accounts to allow it to resell aggregated, anonymised data about its customers’ buying patterns to third parties.
“Barclays is just the latest company to see its customers as data cash cows and this is reflected in the growing distrust people around the world have in big businesses using their data in a fair and reasonable manner,” added Pickles.
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