Too many people in Europe have lost control of their personal data, Kaspersky Next, the cyber conference in Barcelona from October 29 to 31, heard. Kaspersky Lab reported that its start-up incubator is launching a Beta version of its Privacy Audit service, to give consumers a way to find out what information is out there about them in the online world. Privacy Audit.me is a web-based tool.
In a study of more than 7000 consumers across Europe, Kaspersky Lab found that a loss of personal data control is something that impacts most people in Europe. A majority, 64pc do not know all the places where their personal data is stored across the web. Some 39pc of parents who do not even know what personal data their children are sharing online.
Kaspersky Lab’s research suggests that consumers do care about the fate of their information; 88pc care if their data is used unlawfully. A majority, 57pc would feel scared and/or stressed if their personal financial data was hacked into. Just 45pc of respondents trust large businesses to take care of their data and only 36pc believe their data is secure on social media sites. Consumers are not doing much to help themselves and some get even the simple things wrong. One in five (20pc) do not password protect their Wi-Fi, 31pc agreed with the statement ‘I have never updated the security options on my Wi-Fi router’ and 30pc do not protect their devices with security software.
As the IT security product firm pointed out, businesses that protect personal data carefully still cannot prevent users from doing dangerous things like using the same password for multiple accounts, sharing their passwords with others or making them easy to guess, or failing to secure their router.
A panel on ‘The Price of Privacy in an Age of Data Promiscuity’ at the conference was Marco Preuss (Director of GReAT, Europe at Kaspersky), Eva Galperin (CEO of EFF), and Nevena Ruzic (Head of Compliance at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Serbia).
Nevena Ruzic said: “We have come to a point where our personality is much more exposed online than offline and the reason for this is that we are naïve when we believe the online services we use are ‘free’. While, as internet users, we should be more aware of where we provide our data online, the organisations that process our data have a duty to do so in accordance with not just legal, but also ethical, norms.”
And Marco Preuss, Head of Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team in Europe, pictured, said: “People know they must protect their own data, because failing to do so can be disastrous. If your data is stolen you may lose money, be chased for a debt that somebody else has run up, your reputation may be destroyed, you may even be accused of a crime. Your information may be sold and the money used to fund all sorts of crime.”
