Less than one third of UK consumers feel responsible for online privacy

72% of British consumers are worried about hackers and unauthorised access to their personal information, according to a survey of 2,000 UK adults carried out by YouGov on behalf of global security firm CloudMask.

This is because consumers find that sharing their data online has become unavoidable, the survey claims. 70% of consumers said they had had to share data when signing up for online services.

51% of people surveyed said they didn’t want to pay for online protection, while 61% thought the organisation responsible for an app or website should take the most responsibility. 32% of respondents said they were happy to pay to protect their private information online, and 29% placed the most responsibility in their own hands.

“Gone are the days when consumers took a back seat in protecting their data online,” said Wael Aggan, CEO of CloudMask. “High-profile data breaches, including celebrities’ nude photographs being pasted over the internet, credit card details being hacked and governments gaining permission to access Google and Microsoft customer data is forcing consumers to take more control of their privacy.”