Survey: Americans 5 times more worried about hackers than browser tracking

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/12/20/survey-americans-5-times-more-worried-about-hacker-than-tracking/

Americans are much more concerned about identity theft than having their
browser history tracked for advertisers, according to a recent survey from
the Computer & Communications Industry Association.

Of the 1,000 people polled in November, 80% are more worried that financial
and personal information they provide online will get hacked to cause harm
or steal. Only 16% are more worried that companies will share their
information for the purposes of targeted advertising.

Their concerns seem founded in personal experience. Half of the respondents
said they or someone they know had their financial accounts breached
online. Fifty-five percent said they or someone they know had their email
accounts hacked, while 62% have received suspicious emails from people
whose accounts were breached.

Most of the respondents said they are taking steps to keep their financial
and personal information private online. Popular approaches include
preventing services from storing credit card information, setting browsers
to disable cookies and blocking apps from accessing their location.
Sixty-eight percent have adjusted privacy settings for their online
accounts.

Still, 74% of the people polled want the federal government to do more to
prevent identity theft.

“By wide margins this survey clearly shows that ID theft has touched the
majority of consumers in some way, and that hacking is more worrisome to
consumers than tracking, and that voters want the government to more
aggressively go after cyber criminals,” Ed Black, president and CEO of
CCIA, said in a statement.

Almost twice as many respondents said they would choose a free Internet
with targeted ads over a targeted ad-free online service they have to pay
for.

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