Online privacy measures worldwide 2023

A global survey conducted between November 2022 and January 2023 revealed that seven in ten respondents had taken steps to protect their online identity. Those who enabled multi-factor authentication were 30 percent. Additionally, 28 percent said they changed default settings on devices. On the other hand, 30 percent said they had not done anything to protect their digital identity.

Steps taken by global internet users to protect their personal information online as of January 2023

Characteristic	Share of respondents
Taken any steps to protect identity	70%
Used online parental controls on children's accounts or devices (parents of minors only)	36%
Enabled multi-factor authentication	30%
Changed default privacy settings on devices	28%
Used an identity theft protection service	27%
Disabled third-party coockies in a browser	25%
Used a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt information sent to and from my devices	18%
Deleted a social media account (vary by country)	17%
Used an ecrypted e-mail service or messaging app	17%
Used anonymous payment methods	16%
Asked a company/reviewed to see what personal information they have about me in their customer records	9%
Other	4%

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Release date

2023

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

November 2022 to January 2023

Number of respondents

12,025 respondents

Age group

18 years and older

Method of interview

Online survey

Supplementary notes

The source surveyed 7,021 adults in Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom between November and December 2022 and 5,004 adults in the US were surveyed in January 2023.

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