15 Stats Brands Should Know About Online Privacy

Privacy is always a hot-button issue in this industry–especially now with everyone debating over the future of the cookie.

When it comes to consumers, they are just as confused and divided when it comes to online privacy. While more and more people are becoming concerned about their personal information online, some are willing to share their information online if there are benefits.

Here are 15 interesting stats marketers should keep in mind about online privacy.

By examining data correlation between different online accounts, scientists were able to accurately de-anonymize (aka identify) 30.8 percent of users of Twitter and Flickr. (University of Texas, “De-Anonymizing Social Networks”)

45 percent of U.S. adults feel that they have little or no control over the personal information companies gather while they are browsing the Web or using online services. (Ispos)

25 percent of millennials are OK with sharing some of their personal information in exchange for more relevant advertising, versus 19 percent of people 35 and over. (USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future)

51 percent of millennials would share personal information with companies as long as they get something in return, versus 40 percent of people 35 and over. (USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future)

56 percent of millennials would share their location in order to receive deals and coupons, versus 42 percent of people 35 and over. (USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future)

73 percent of Internet users said they would not be OK with an online search engine keeping track of their queries even if the data provides personalized results in the future. (Pew Internet & American Life Project)

81 percent of parents of online teens say they are concerned about how much information advertisers can learn about their child’s online behavior. (Pew Internet & American Life Project)

44 percent of parents of online teens say they have taken the step of reading the privacy policies of websites or social networking sites that their child is using. (Pew Internet & American Life Project)

France has an average of nine third-party cookies per homepage, versus eight in Great Britain and five in the Netherlands. (Truste Privacy Index)

40 percent of U.S. adults say they totally understand how to protect their online privacy. (Ispos)

65 percent of U.S. adults have deleted cookies to protect their online privacy. (Ispos)

15 percent of U.S. adults haven’t taken any steps to protect their privacy online. (Ispos)

54 percent of mobile app users have decided to not install a mobile app when they realized how much personal information they would need to share in order to use it. (Pew)

19 percent of mobile phone owners have turned off the location tracking feature on their cell phone because they were concerned that other individuals or companies could access that information. (Pew)

16 percent of consumers believe online-only web merchants are trustworthy when it comes to keeping their personal information secure online. (Forrester)

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