Comment

Analyst Speak: Data losses put Government at bottom of people's trust

Platform: Internet | Author: David Day, European CEO, Lightspeed Research | Source: NMA magazine | Published: 20.11.08

Email article | Printer Friendly | Comment on this articlemore Comment

We've just completed a survey of 1,000 UK consumers asking who they trust with their data. With a number of data breaches making the headlines over the last year, we wanted to understand what if any impact this had on who people trust with their personal information.

The results show that, compared to this time a year ago, people are much more worried about data security — over three quarters (78%) said they were much or a bit more worried about how companies safeguard their personal data....

Article continues below

...

When we asked if people were worried about how the Government keeps their data secure, those concerned rose to a massive 85% of all respondents. Older people were more likely to be concerned, with 57% of over-55s saying they were much more worried now than a year ago. When the two sets of responses are viewed side by side, it's clear that confidence in the Government's ability to look after personal data is lower in every demographic group, both age and gender.

Respondents admitted that recent news about data going missing or being found by members of the public had influenced their opinion. The Government has certainly fared worse here — 57% were a lot more concerned about the Government and 37% about companies.

We asked people to rate their trust in the data security of different organisations so we could rank them. Of those institutions considered very trustworthy, banks and building societies came top with 17%. This survey was carried out between 22 and 28 September 2008, at the start of the recent turmoil in the retail banking sector in the UK.

A third of people (30%) felt the Government was not trustworthy at all. The next lowest group was online auction sites at 13%, which have had a reputation for poor customer service. While it's not surprising that recent lapses in security have resulted in lower levels of consumer trust in the Government on this score, what is surprising is the high levels of trust people have in companies, both online and offline, to look after their personal information. Perhaps it's time the Government learned a few lessons from Britain's retailers about data security.