The survey was conducted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) also discovered that 29% of survey-takers said they had avoided conducting financial transactions online, 26% had avoided buying goods or services, 26% avoided posting to social networks and 19% said they had stopped themselves from expressing an opinion that may be deemed controversial due to privacy concerns.
Identity theft led the survey on threats with 63% saying they were concerned about it, followed by 45% saying they were concerned with credit card and banking fraud, 23% nominated online data collection, 22% mentioned the risk of losing control over their personal data, 18% feared data collection by the Government, while 13% said they were concerned with personal threats to their safety.
The skepticism lies in real facts, with 19% surveyed saying they were affected by an online security breach in the last year, equating to some 19 million US-based households.
NTIA experts say that in addition to being a problem of great concern to many US users, privacy and security issues may reduce economic activity and hamper the free exchange of ideas online.
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