Tag Archives: data awareness

European Commission reports awareness throughout Europe of data rights and data protection

The Special Eurobarometer 487a report on GDPR conducted by survey and data insight consultancy Kantar at the request of the European Commission has been published this month. Where relevant, the report’s findings are compared to findings from the Special Eurobarometer 431 on Data Protection conducted in 2015.

The salient finding is that two-thirds of Europeans have heard of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Moreover, a clear majority are aware of most of the rights guaranteed by GDPR and nearly six out of ten Europeans know of a national authority tasked with protecting their data and responding to breaches.

The level of general awareness of GDPR varies across the EU, ranging from nine in ten respondents in Sweden to just over four in ten in France (44%).

The sixty-eight page report contains detailed comparative data on European attitudes toward the Internet, social media, online purchasing, data security and other GDPR-related phenomena.

Social Media

Despite a general increase in data awareness, the majority of social network users in Europe who responded affirmatively to the question, ‘have you ever tried to change the privacy settings of your personal profile from the default settings on an online social network?’ has decreased by 4% (from 60% in 2015 to 56% in 2019). Trust in social media giants among Europeans, therefore, seems to remain stable.

Interestingly, while UK internet-users are by some way the most likely in Europe to regularly purchase online (64%, followed by the Dutch and Swedish on 50%), they are also among the most likely to ‘never’ use social networks (one in five), following only the Czech Republic (21%) and France (28%). Might this not place under scrutiny the common assumption of a significantly positive correlation between marketing on social media and online sales? While online purchasing has remained stable since 2015, use of social media has expanded significantly, by 15%.

Privacy Statements

For anyone working on privacy statements or considering reworking the ones they have, the report’s findings on this subject may be useful. Your average EU28 internet-user is only 13% likely to ‘fully read’ a privacy statement. 47% of respondents said they would read them ‘partially,’ while 37% would not read them at all. These figures are also fairly consistent across all demographics and member states.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is the length of privacy statements that is the main reason respondents give for not fully reading them (at 66% of respondents, who could choose multiple reasons in the survey). In the UK this is higher than average at 75%, in line with the finding that high rates of internet usage correlate with people finding things too long to read.

Length of privacy statement is followed by finding them unclear or difficult to understand (31%), the sufficiency of a privacy statement existing on the website at all (17%), the belief that the law will protect them in any case (15%), the statement ‘isn’t important’ (11%), distrust in the website honouring the statement (10%, although this has fallen by 5% since 2015), and finally ‘other’ and ‘not knowing where the find them’ (5% each).

Websites do seem to have improved the clarity or wording of their privacy statements slightly over the last four years, given the mild reduction (7%) in Europeans claiming the statements are difficult to read. Respondents in the UK are among the least likely in Europe (at 19%) to find privacy statements unclear, on a par with Croatians and just below Latvians (at 15%).

Concern over control of data

The report shows there is still more that can be done by organisations and even data protection authorities wanting to build confidence among people providing information online. More than six in ten Europeans are concerned about not having complete control over the information they provide online. Indeed, 16% responded that they were ‘very concerned’. The British and the Irish are among the most concerned, either ‘very’ or ‘fairly’, at 73% and 75% respectively.

Overall, there has been a mild decrease across Europe of respondents expressing concern over control of their data, with significant decreases of up to 20% in Eastern Europe. Five countries show minor increases of concern, the highest being France and Cyprus with 5%.

Conclusions

Respondents are not only broadly aware of the rights guaranteed under GDPR, but many have begun to exercise them. Nearly a quarter of Europeans (24%) have cited the right to not receive direct marketing in taking action against this infringement. While awareness of the right to have a say when decisions are automated remains relatively low (41%), this proportion is likely to increase.

As the report states, ‘the GDPR regulation is now more important than ever – almost all respondents use the Internet (84%), with three quarters doing so daily.’ Organisations have the opportunity to pave the way for greater confidence and trust in online activities involving consumers’ data.

Harry Smithson, 28th June 2019

Be Data Aware: the ICO’s campaign to improve data awareness

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As the Information Commissioners Office’s ongoing investigation into the political weaponisation of data analytics and harvesting sheds more and more light on the reckless use of ‘algorithms, analysis, data matching and profiling’ involving personal information, consumers are becoming more data conscious. The ICO, as of 8th May, has launched an awareness campaign, featuring a video, legal factsheets reminding citizens of their rights under GDPR, and advice guidelines on internet behaviour. Currently the campaign is floating on Twitter under #BeDataAware.

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While the public is broadly aware of targeted marketing, and fairly accustomed to the process of companies attempting to reach certain demographics, the political manipulation of data is considered, if not a novel threat, then a problem compounded by the new frontier of online data analytics. Ipsos MORI’s UK Cyber Survey conducted on behalf of the DCMS found that 80% of respondents considered cyber security to be a ‘high priority,’ but that many of these people would not be in groups likely to take much action to prevent cybercrime personally. What this could indicate is that while consumers may be concerned about cybercrime being used against themselves, they are also aware of broader social, economic and political dangers that the inappropriate or illegal use of personal information poses.

ICO’s video (currently on Vimeo, but not YouTube), titled ‘Your Data Matters,’ asks at the beginning, “When you search for a holiday, do you notice online adverts become much more specific?” Proceeding to graphics detailing this relatively well-known phenomenon, the video then draws a parallel with political targeting: “Did you know political campaigners use these same targeting techniques, personalising their campaign messaging to you, trying to influence your vote?” Importantly, the video concludes, “You have the right to know who is targeting you and how your data is used.”

To take a major example of an organisation trying to facilitate this right, Facebook allows users to see why they may have been targeted by an advert with a clickable, dropdown option called ‘Why am I seeing this?’ Typically, the answer will read ‘[Company] is trying to reach [gender] between the ages X – Y in [Country].’ But the question remains as to whether this will be sufficiently detailed in the future. With growing pressure on organisations to pursue best practice when it comes to data security, and with the public’s growing perception of the political ramifications of data security policies, will consumers and concerned parties demand more information on, for instance, which of their online behaviours have caused them to be targeted?

A statement from the Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham as part of the Be Data Aware campaign has placed the ICO’s data security purview firmly in the context of upholding democratic values.

“Our goal is to effect change and ensure confidence in our democratic system. And that can only happen if people are fully aware of how organisations are using their data, particularly if it happens behind the scenes.

“New technologies and data analytics provide persuasive tools that allow campaigners to connect with voters and target messages directly at them based on their likes, swipes and posts. But this cannot be at the expense of transparency, fairness and compliance with the law.”

Uproar surrounding the data analytics scandal, epitomised by Cambridge Analytica’s data breach beginning in 2014, highlights the public’s increasing impatience with the reckless use of data. The politicisation of cybercrime, and greater knowledge and understanding of data misuse, means that consumers will be far less forgiving of companies that are not seen to be taking information security seriously.

Harry Smithson 9 May 2019