Survey finds more than half of netizen share phone number publicly

More than half of people in a survey said that they have shared their phone numbers and addresses publicly and close to three-quarters of netizens knowingly skipped terms and conditions and safety legal guidelines online, a report by internet firm OLX said on Friday.

According to the report, 66 per cent of the total respondents showed that they have been victims of online financial frauds and the UPI platform has been used by fraudsters to dupe netizens.

"52 per cent of respondents have publicly shared their phone numbers and personal addresses online while 26 per cent have admitted to sharing sensitive one-time passwords with others. The remaining 22 per cent of respondents admit to sharing bank account passwords, UPI pin, credit and debit card details with others," OLX 2020 Internet Behaviour Study said.

OLX studied the behaviour of close to 7,500 netizens between the age groups of 18-55 to understand the state of awareness and cyber safety preparedness for the report, the company said.

"73 per cent of respondents said they actively skipped the terms and conditions and safety-legal guidelines owing to the fact they were cumbersome to read and too complex to understand. This figure was 67 per cent in 2019. Only 27 per cent admitted to actively reading them prior to signing up for online platforms or services," the report said.

Contrary to the neglect, the report found that 72 per cent respondents were cognisant of the fact that conducting banking transactions over unsecured WiFi networks could jeopardize their own safety.

The survey found that parents have now become more vigilant over content that their kids access online compared to their attitude in 2019.

"In 2019, 60 per cent parents admitted to not supervising the content their kids viewed online while in 2020, 66 per cent parents actively monitored their kids internet access," the report said.