Half of British adults see privacy online as a luxury, but they aren’t ready to pay top dollar for it.
According to a study from Trend Micro Inc.4704.TO -0.60%, a security software firm based in Tokyo, the average amount that Brits are willing to pay to secure their online personal data is £2.50 ($4.20) a month–or £30, about $50, a year.
Some 58% of respondents in the survey said they would be prepared to pay to safeguard all their personal details.
“It’s a sad state of affairs that we now think of online privacy as a luxury good,” said Rik Ferguson, vice president for security research at Trend Micro.
The survey also showed widespread unawareness of data vulnerability. Half of the survey group weren’t aware that governments and the public sector could legally sell access to their personal data. Younger respondents were less aware than their older counterparts.
There was also a lack of awareness of what consumers can do to protect their privacy online. Only half of the respondents, for instance, knew how to opt out of providing personal data to private companies when signing up for services. Even fewer realized this could also be done for public-sector services.
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