50% business executives sold personal data to third parties: Survey

With consumers rampantly facing major data breaches due to increased online transaction -- whether for work, leisure or play -- a new survey has revealed that nearly 50 per cent of business executives sold consumer data that includes personally identifiable information (PII) to third parties.

The survey, revealed by software major CA Technologies, highlighted how consumers perceive and trust organisations to protect their digital data.

Forty-eight per cent of consumers reported that they currently use, or have used in the past, services of organisations that were involved in a publicly disclosed data breach.

"In today's digital world, consumers expect security and privacy to go hand-in-hand with a great user experience," Mordecai Rosen, General Manager, Security at CA Technologies, said in a statement on Friday.

"The study clearly shows that trust is fleeting if organisations don't do their due diligence to protect consumer data from getting into the wrong hands," Rosen added.

In the survey, titled "Global State of Digital Trust Survey and Index 2018," only half of consumers surveyed (49 per cent) are willing to provide their personal data in exchange for digital services.

"What the survey found is that there is certainly a price to pay -- whether you're a consumer or you run a business that handles consumer data -- when it comes to maintaining data privacy," said Jarad Carleton, industry principal, Cybersecurity at Frost & Sullivan, who conducted the survey.

"Respect for consumer privacy must become an ethical pillar for any business that collects user data," Carleton added.

The survey also said that 90 per cent of organisations claim that they are very good at protecting consumer data, showing a high level of self-confidence.

In addition, the survey included significant data about how business leaders and cybersecurity professionals at organisations view their responsibilities of data stewardship, the licensing of consumer data to third parties and the technologies they are implementing to protect data and customer privacy.

The global online survey involved 990 consumers, 336 security professionals and 324 business executives across 10 countries.

--IANS

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