Survey Shows Consumer Concern About Cloud Services is Nothing New

Data privacy issues have been spotlighted in recent weeks. But even before hearing about PRISM, consumers were concerned about the security and privacy of content they store in the cloud.
Helsinki, Finland – : A recent F-Secure survey shows that even before PRISM news broke, six out of ten consumers were concerned about the security of storing their content in social networking and cloud storage services. F-Secure’s Digital Lifestyle Survey 2013, which interviewed 6,000 people in 15 countries in April,* found younger people and multi-screeners to be more concerned than others.
According to the survey, the top five providers people upload their content to are Facebook, YouTube, Google Drive, Dropbox, and tying for fifth place are Microsoft SkyDrive and Apple iCloud. But results show that uploading content to social networking services and cloud storage providers doesn’t necessarily equal confidence in them.
59% of consumers expressed concern that someone else may be able to access content they store with these providers. 60% were concerned that providers may be selling their personal content to third parties, and 62% thought that providers may sell their digital behavior data. 63% were worried about the vulnerability of storage providers’ technology. European countries, with the exception of France, showed generally lower levels of concern than other countries; for example, in Germany 52% were concerned about unauthorized access to their content and in Italy 61% were, while in the USA that number was 69%, and in Brazil 78%.
People ages 20 to 30 showed the most concern, and those age 50 to 60 slightly less. People who reported using multiple screens at the same time also appeared to be more concerned than those who mostly use one screen at a time. These more concerned groups were also the ones who use cloud services more.
33% of consumers said they feel like they are losing control of their content, and more so with multi-screeners than with single screeners. That number is highest in Belgium, where 51% felt they are losing control, and lowest in the UK, where only 20% did.
“The findings reflect that consumers have been generally aware of the issues surrounding storing your content in the cloud,” says Timo Laaksonen, Vice President, Content Cloud at F-Secure. “This further underscores the need for secure, private cloud services with a company like F-Secure, who knows security inside and out and respects your ownership of your data.”
F-Secure’s personal content cloud solution Content Anywhere, which it offers through mobile and broadband operators, allows consumers to store, sync, access and share their photos, videos, documents and other files safely anywhere, from any device. For more information, visit www.f-secure.com/content-anywhere.