Data Privacy and VPN Use 2017

 

Several statistics can offer an indication of the latest developments in data privacy as well as the use of VPN services. In records kept across a period of ten years, it was found that fifty-eight percent of governments did not go far enough to protect the citizens of their countries, while twenty-eight percent have gone too far and is now restricting civil liberties.

The perfect balance lies somewhere in-between, yet several vital internet trends contribute to decisions and internet law changes. A survey conducted in February 2016 by the Pew Research Centre regarding the Apple disagreement to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernadino terrorist revealed that 58% of citizens thought that Apple should unlock the phone, 38% voted that Apple should not unlock the phone and 11% could not give a yes or no answer. It was surprising that the majority wanted Apple to unlock the iPhone and break their promise to protect all users, while on the other hand, 38% believed the company handled this FBI investigation correct. It takes surveys to the next question, which is how many citizens are actually concerned about consumer data privacy.

The survey conducted in 2017 revealed fifty percent of citizens are very concerned regarding data privacy, forty-six percent are somewhat concerned and four percent are not concerned. The same survey revealed that around 45% of citizens are more concerned about their online privacy than they were the same time last year and 74% have taken action by limiting their online activities in the past year.

Ad Blocking Growth Globally

Google and Apple contend that customer data are collected to customise advertising for their users. Data reveals that internet users are more frustrated with ads than ever before and the growing frustration led to the employment of record numbers of ad blockers.

Blocking ad rates have grown stronger at a rapid pace since 2013 when it reached 54 million active users and by 2015 this increased to 181 million monthly users. The usage of ad blockers grew by 41% globally which demonstrates the increasing need for both businesses and consumers to focus cybersecurity more than ever. It is up to governments to enforce data laws, and VPN use are increasing all the time.

2017 VPN Use

Data privacy and VPN use have strong correlations, access to a different server for internet use offered by VPN service providers makes hackers task much more difficult, and third-parties find it more difficult to track online activities. The top markets for citizens VIP use are the Middle East and Asia, and Indonesian and Thai internet using citizens are the most likely to make use of VPN services.

Top 10 VPN Markets Globally in 2017

The top markets globally that access content via VPNs

The lowest VPN use is in Germany 6%, the USA 5%, in the UK 5% and Australia 4% according to global web index. Statistically one out of every four people utilising VPN services uses it to browse anonymously or to access entertainment.  

Internet Traffic in 2017

Asia Account for Almost 50% of Internet Users. In 2017 there are 3,700,000 users of the internet, and Asia account for almost half of the users. 49.6% of internet users are in Asia, 17% in Europe, 10.7% in the Caribbean and Latin America, 9.4% in Africa, 8.9% in North America, 3.7% in the Middle East and 0.8% in Australia and Oceania.

Instant Messaging & Emails Dominates

Internet or online activities is dominated by texting, emails and instant messaging, 90.92% of users use email, 86.15% uses text or instant messaging, 71.46% utilises online location-based services, 70.35% of users use social networking, 68.61% uses banking, bill paying and investing services. Downloading and streaming services are used by 54.37% of online users, 48% utilise health information, job searches used by 27.29% and 20.99% participate in job training or classes online.

Browsers Used by Majority

When it comes to browser statistics, there is not much completion for Google Chrome and its nearest competitor is Firefox. 70% of online users utilise Chrome, 20 % Firefox, 10% Safari and around 3% Opera.

The number of internet websites crossed the 1 billion marks in 2014 and web growth is the fastest segment, other fast-growing industries include active social media users and the active number of mobile users. Web abandonment for sites that take over three seconds to load show an abandonment rate 40% of visitors and 80% of those never return.

The most visited websites on the internet is dominated by Google and Facebook, Google is far ahead of any competition with a 16.38% lead, Facebook visits totals 5.89% in most visited sites, YouTube 2.94%, Gmail 2.61%, Amazon 1.23%, Yahoo 1.25%, Wikipedia 0.97%, Google Maps 0.72% and Reddit 0.72%.

Image-based platforms used to find products:

Pinterest is used by 55% users to find shops or products, 12% use Facebook, 12% use Instagram, 9% use Twitter, 5% LinkedIn and 3% Snapchat.

Online shopping statistics according to devices:

Sales statistics show 3.95% sales are from Mac devices, 2.43% from Windows, 3.41% from other PC, 2.86% from tablets, 2.07% from iOS devices, 1.21% from Android devices and 0.66% by Windows phone users.

E-Commerce 2018 Forecast

Global retail sales are expected to reach $2.5 trillion in 2018, and the market has substantially increased since 2014 when sales reached 1,136 trillion in 2015. That number increased to it 1,592 trillion, by 2016 that number saw a further increase of 296 trillion. It is estimated that 2017 will see transactions surpass 2,197 trillion and 2018 sales are predicted to close in on 2,489 trillion.

Privacy Threats Globally

The largest crime concern globally is identity theft, and there is a huge increase in concerns regarding security risk and online privacy.

Internet theft is a huge concern for 63% of households, banking and credit card fraud 45%, data collection 23%, loss of control over personal data 22%, government data collection 18% and personal safety threats 13%.

As the number of household devices increases so does the threat of cybercrime. Reports of household’s breaches of an online nature with five or more devices in the household have increased by 31%, those with four devices increased by 25%, three device households 19%, two devices 14% and one device households by 9%.

The fear globally against cybercrime has caused major online changes in behaviour, and almost 30% of individuals now avoid doing any financial transactions online.

Cyber Crime Organizations and Businesses

Several studies have revealed that 63% of organisations and businesses still do not have an incidence response plan that is fully operable. The survey directly looked at the response plans in place at companies to deal with cyber-attacks. Nineteen-percent of businesses did not know, 14% did not intend to implement any response plan, 17% won’t implement plan due to feasibility, 12% were in the process but implementation was not started yet, and 37% had fully operational response plans.

Reasons Why Data Protection Fails

IT pros report challenges with data privacy 93% of the time as 56% of business employees lack understanding and awareness of data privacy policies. The report showed that 35% of business have no processes in place to audit or train employees, 27% revealed that their IT teams do not know the requirements or the laws, 45% lack the budget to implement solutions, 34% lack priority and 24% have no data privacy policies.

Ever Evolving Ransomware

A major shift in the way that hackers launch ransomware have surfaced over the past few years, 10 years ago it was done only with misleading apps, more current the main method have moved to crypto-ransomware, and the endpoint is compromised through spam, malvertising, direct downloads, botnets, and malware.