Consumer confidence declining for online financial activities

Who is responsible for securing your online financial activities, and protecting your data? Is it the online retailer or financial institution, or is it you? Perhaps a little of both?

A new survey from Kaspersky Lab found that concerns are growing amongst consumers when it comes to online transactions, and data privacy, but for some reason the consumers who are concerned seem to be doing little or nothing to help defend themselves.

I wrote about the Kaspersky report in this blog post:

Remember banking before the Internet? You received printed bank statements in the mail and had to manually reconcile the information with the written register in your checkbook. I don’t miss it, but I also recognize the convenience of accessing my financial data through a bank website comes with some serious security considerations. According to a new consumer survey from Kaspersky Labs, I am not alone.

Kaspersky conducted an online survey between May and June of this year and gathered information from users in 23 countries around the world. The findings were eye opening.

First, more than three fourths of the survey respondents use multiple devices and/or platforms to connect to the Internet. More than a quarter indicated they actually prefer to access the Internet from a tablet or smartphone, and nine out of 10 revealed they store sensitive information on all of their devices.

But there seems to be a disconnect between those preferences and how consumers view privacy and data security. Almost 40 percent stated they store highly sensitive information on their devices, and they’re concerned that it may be compromised or exposed. Approximately six in 10 respondents cited fears their personal data may be stolen, and roughly that same percentage claimed to be worried their devices may be used to spy on them and infringe on their personal privacy.

Click here to read the full story on PCWorld: Report: Consumers concerned about online threats but do little to protect themselves.

Do you take steps to secure your online activities and protect your data? Do you think the sites and services you use should take more responsibility for safeguarding you online? Discuss in the comments below…