Cybercrime and data leaks concern 75 per cent of Australians, as notions towards company access to personal data shifts.
Data value exchange between businesses and consumers is reportedly shifting in favour of the consumer, revealed by Dentsu Data Consciousness Project, a research report examining how Australians feel about businesses accessing and leveraging their data.
The Data Consciousness Project examines how Australians have shifted from being quite open with their data when the report began in 2018 to feeling protective and concerned with how businesses intend to use it.
This follows major data leaks in the past five years from big names like Facebook, LinkedIn, 23 and Me, and many more.
“In the first half of 2023, there were 409 data breaches, with two of these affecting more than 1 million people and one affecting more than 10 million Australians. It is against this backdrop that Australians have become more concerned about how their data is being collected and how it is being used and are now expecting more from companies”, said Christine McKinnon, Dentsu head of intelligence.
From a survey of 1,985 Australians, the Data Consciousness project took a deep dive into how consumers aged between 16 and 65 feel about their data being accessed by brands, responses to emerging technologies like Artificial Technology, and their expectations of value in exchange for their data.
The report found that 73 per cent of Australians are afraid of data breaches within the company of the brand and 62 per cent fear a lack of understanding of how a company uses their data.
