On April 2016, the Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO) issued the Annual Track 2016, a research that assesses the level of awareness of UK population of its information/privacy rights.
According to the document, the most important social issue for UK citizens is health care. Only 15% is concerned with protection of personal information. And the younger generations seem less concerned than the older ones.
The survey highlights a mistrust of UK individuals towards the handling of personal information by businesses. “Only 1 in 4 UK adults trust businesses with their personal information. High street banks are the most trusted, internet brands the least”.
The majority of UK adults thinks that “businesses are not transparent in data use and feel that they are not in control of data usage”; they say they would share more data it if privacy was guaranteed.
According to the survey, “UK adults are taking a variety of online and offline measures to protect their personal data”, for example if they are checking bank statements, they ensure that their computers are adequately protected. 59% of UK adults use different passwords for different online portals. However, only 25% or less tries to hide or delete online personal data, for example by eliminating cookies. Again, the younger generation seems to be less likely than older generations to try and safeguard their personal data by – for instance – using different passwords.
Interestingly, “the majority of UK adults believe learning how to protect personal data should be taught in schools”.
The survey also shows how the UK Data Protection Act has now reached almost universal awareness (97% of the population is informed of it) while the newly approved GDPR is only starting to cut through (6%).
The report shares many other interesting insights on people’s trust, personal information, freedom of information, and awareness.
The Annual Track 2016 is available at https://ico.org.uk…
Originally pubblished on Techenthics on June 2016