Public Have No Mercy Over Personal Data Loss

Symantec Corp and Moneysupermarket.com, the online price comparison site, have conducted a survey that reveals that no less than 80% of the British public don’t trust companies to hold their personal details securely.

Not only that, 89% feel that repeated security leaks or plain reckless disregard of customer data should be a criminal offence with jail terms to suit.

75% think that there should be no second chances, with data loss being punishable on the first occurrence.

The survey report points to big time loss of public faith in companies that fail to keep details secure.

On the other side of the coin, an almost equal number of companies, 76%, expect that there would be a significant loss of faith and resulting loss of customers and revenue if data leaks occur.

Some 50% of those believe that the reaction would be immediate and possibly irreversible.

On top of customer loss there would be a problem of faith from potential new customers. 60% of company’s believe attracting new business would be harder after a data loss.

Another factor is that 75% of consumers believe that companies hold too much information on them.

A massive 93% indicated that any company that suffers a loss would have a hard time persuading them to give up information to be stored on or off line.

It’s not all doom and gloom for business, 50% of the respondents considered that the single worst data offender was the government.

But saying that a company’s record was better than the government’s would presumably offer little reassurance to the public.

All this could be hot air, as 73% of respondents did absolutely nothing to ensure the security of their credit card when they passed it to someone for payment.

18% didn’t even know how to verify the security of a payment page, and of those that do, 66% only look for the padlock logo.

Additionally, 89% would share their name and 23% their date of birth with a complete stranger.

50% see internet shopping as the most insecure but 84% use the service, of those a massive 75% are more likely to shop online than they were at the beginning of the year.

The answers indicate the public is very aware and very concerned about data safety, but they see it as company’s problem, not theirs.

They believe it is up to big business to keep them safe and they have little input into online or offline data security which is down to any company that wants their business.