Gemalto released the findings of its 2016 Data Breaches and Customer Loyalty report, revealing that consumers put responsibility for protecting their personal data firmly at the hands of the organizations holding their data – and not themselves.
 
According to the 9,000 consumers surveyed in Australia, Benelux, France, Germany, Russia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, Japan, UK and US, 70% of the responsibility for protecting and securing customer data lies with companies and only 30% of the responsibility with themselves.
 
Yet, less than a third (29%) consumers believe companies are taking protection of their personal data very seriously. This comes as consumers are becoming increasingly fearful of their data being stolen, with 58% believing it will happen to them in the future. More than 4.8 billion data records have been exposed since 2013 with identity theft being the leading type of data breach accounting for 64% of all data breaches.
 
Where consumers see most risk
Despite becoming more aware of the threats posed to them online, only one in 10 (11%) believe there are no apps or websites out there that pose the greatest risk to them and consumers are not changing behavior as a result:
• 80% use social media, despite 59% believing these networks pose a great risk
• 87% use online or mobile banking, with 34% believing they leave them vulnerable to cybercriminals
 
Nearly six in ten (58%) consumers believe they will be a victim of a breach at some point, and organizations need to be prepared for the loss of business such incidents may cause. The majority of consumers who currently use the following, say they would stop using a retailer (60%), bank (58%) or social media site (56%) if it suffered a breach.
 
The study found that fraudulent use of financial information has affected 21% of consumers, with others experiencing fraudulent use of their personal details (15%) and identity theft (14%). A third (36%) of those who have been a victim of a breach attribute this to a fraudulent website. Clicking a bad link (34%) and phishing (33%) were the next highest methods consumers were caught by.
 
“Consumers have clearly made the decision that they are prepared to take risks when it comes to their security, but should anything go wrong they put the blame with the business,” said Jason Hart, CTO, Data Protection at Gemalto. “Implementing and educating about advanced protocols like two-factor authentication and encryption solutions, should show consumers that the protection of their personal data is being taken very seriously.”