This week the results of a couple of surveys about privacy were released, and it is worth noting some of the findings. One survey was the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada's biannual privacy survey of Canadians, conducted by Phoenix Research. The other is a global consumer survey about convenience, privacy and security conducted by digital identity company Okta.
Both surveys tell us that Canadians remain quite concerned about their privacy and want to have a measure of control over it. Good to know I still have a day job!
According to the OPC survey, only about half of Canadians feel they have a decent amount of knowledge about their privacy rights and how to protect them. The number of Canadians rating their knowledge as poor has taken a dive, though, from 18% in the last survey to 27%. Concerns revolve mostly around new technologies, and people remain worried about ID theft and the decisions that may be made about them. Apparently, people feel government respects privacy more than businesses, but for both these groups, the figures have gone down, suggesting more needs to be done here. What sectors do Canadians trust the most? Banks and law enforcement got the top ratings, while telecommunications businesses, ISPs, retail and Big Tech trailed behind. Are Canadians concerned enough to delete all their social media accounts? Not so much, although they are tightening their settings. I can tell you the young adults in my household have tweaked theirs so I can see their posts, but not their stories. Hmm, what's up with that?
Anyway, Okta took an understandably different angle given what they do. Sure, people care a lot about privacy and security, but 70% are also totally overwhelmed by all the authentication going on. Can we agree username and password overload is a thing? People say what they really want is a better user experience — a "frictionless" login process that also maintains privacy and security. So, folks, this is the challenge for many organizations focused on their customers and their customers' privacy. What is that sweet spot? Because I think success in terms of trust and business growth largely depends on how we solve this important challenge. Let's make it as easy, transparent and seamless as we can for our organizations and for individuals to protect privacy, shall we?