Most Brits, 79 percent, support using a button on their phones or smartwatches to alert police to their location during emergencies. Fewer than half, 41 percent support police being able to monitor fitness tracker data anytime to determine their location at a certain time. That’s according to the 2017 Unisys Security Index.
The UK public was divided in its support for IoT (Internet of Things) healthcare applications, with 74 percent supporting IoT-enabled medical devices, such as pacemakers or blood sugar sensors that immediately transmit any significant changes to doctors but only 32 percent supporting the idea of health insurance providers tracking fitness activity via wearable monitors to determine premiums or reward safe behavior.
Besides law enforcement and healthcare, the UK public registered its support for IoT related to air travel, with 69 percent of respondents backing the use of sensors in luggage that communicate with an airport’s baggage management system and an app on mobile phones to tell them when their luggage has been unloaded and what carousel it will be on.
A third, 33 percent of UK consumers said they support using a smartwatch app from a bank or credit card company to make payments, with 49 percent stating they did not support this use case.
Salvatore Sinno, Global Chief Security Architect at Unisys, said: “The combination of people wanting to stay hyper-connected and the growing number of high-profile cyber-attacks and security threats is creating a society with high expectations of technology, but also with high concerns around how their personal data is used and managed. Technology providers need to continually educate and reassure consumers while providing transparency on security procedures and controls to protect users.”
UK respondents also aired concerns in how international and domestic intelligence services may abuse these technologies, with 49 percent of those surveyed believing that intelligence services can, and will, listen to or watch them via their smart televisions and other smart devices. About a quarter of those surveyed (27 percent) stated that they chose not to buy smart devices for fear of them being hacked, but 61 percent said they backed up personal data to protect themselves from the threat of hackers. Should the worst happen, 42 percent of respondents said all of their connected devices were fully insured against hackers, under an individual or home insurance plan. Most, 63 percent agreed that they would not be able to afford to replace all of their connected devices should they get hacked.
About the 2017 Unisys Security Index
It’s based on online surveys between April 6 and 18, 2017 of nationally representative samples of at least 1000 adults in: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, the United States and the UK.
Visit http://www.unisys.com/unisys-security-index/uk.
