Online Privacy - A Big Concern in US

Privacy concern is the biggest concern for the Internet users in the US. The loss or stealing of credit and debit card information and other important personal information reached to a record level in 2007, as per a survey conducted by Center for the Digital Future of the University of Southern California on January 17, 2008.

Around 61% American adults said that they are concerned about the security of their personal information when they shop online while the percentage of same kind of people in 2006 was 47%. Around 33% adult online shoppers have decided to stop buying things from Internet.

The online sellers are the one who have suffered most from the privacy concern. Theft of personal information has slowed down the growth of e-commerce industry though the online shopping is growing rapidly. Many businesses believe that identity theft or credit card fraud is the problem of users and they have nothing to do with it. However, identity theft significantly influences the society and costs of businesses.

The ITRC (Identity Theft Resources center) recorded around 125 Million inventories reported compromised in the US in 2007. It was six fold rise from 20 Million records accounted in 2006. The ITRC also unveiled that a theft of a single notebook, which is supposed to enclose personal details of the customers, costs around $90,000 to a business in fines like customer credit monitoring, fight lawsuit, and managing PR crisis.

As per the security research of Digital Future, the number of compromised personal records is rising, owing to data violation at online corporation, retailers, government organizations and banks. Majority of people, particularly those who do not shop online, are more worried like the new Internet users. They are concerned whether they should buy online or not as the phishing incidents are rising.

In early 2007, the largest violation occurred was an incident of online hacking. TJX Cos revealed that data stealing had disclosed millions of debit and credit cards to hackers for fraud. The number of cards was gathered during heavy retail transaction at TJX chains, T.J. Marshalls and Maxx.

Related article: Online Card Fraud Shows Greater Tendency Than Chip and Pin

» SPAMfighter News - 1/28/2008