Nearly 75% of US Households Had Significant Privacy Concerns in Nov. 2017

Despite the focus on Facebook this year, it is neither the start nor the end of Americans privacy concerns online. A survey of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that nearly 75% of Internet-using households in the United States had “significant concerns about online privacy and security risks” in 2017.

Concerns were strongest among households that had a previous negative experience online. They were especially likely to be concerned about data privacy and to avoid an online activity because of privacy or security concerns.

The NTIA surveys on internet usage have been conducted regularly since 1994 and the latest survey was conducted in November 2017. Over 43,000 households from the 52,000+ that were interviewed reported having at least one internet user and were asked the questions about privacy and security.

The survey was conducted entirely before the Cambridge Analytica scandal at Facebook brought national media attention to data privacy issues. The NTIA survey repeated questions from the 2015 survey so that a baseline could be established between the two years. However, it did ask a few additional questions in the latest iteration of the survey.

The percentage of concerned households is highest among those that have had their information leaked in a data breach. Households that have suffered from a data breach are more likely to be concerned about privacy and security than those that have not been affected. 70 percent of internet-using households that were impacted by a security breach expressed concern about identity theft, while only 54% of households without a breach were concerned about identity theft.

One of the new questions for this survey related to whether privacy or security concerns deterred their search engine usage. Nine (9) percent of online households reported that privacy concerns had stopped them from an online search in the past year. Other online activities avoided due to privacy or security concerns included conducting financial transactions, buying goods or services, posting on social networks, or expressing a controversial opinion. Overall, these numbers saw declines from the 2015 survey responses but still involved a nontrivial amount of people.

If the study were completed now in the aftermath of Cambridge Analytica, the results would likely be significantly higher as many people have reexamined their online activity after March 2018.

The NTIA is one of the federal government organizations involved in a broad outreach effort to the public and businesses in order to formulate privacy principles for a new federal privacy law or regulation. Administration officials have also told Bloomberg Law that they intend to solicit public feedback about their privacy proposal before any legislation goes to Congress. The Federal Trade Commission has already sought feedback about on the public’s privacy concerns in advance of a series of discussion forums planned for this fall.

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