Do you ever really feel like you're safe on the internet? Is your presence online not too big of a deal because you're mostly behind a keyboard or your phone's touchscreen? Well, these survey participants certainly don't feel like it.
A woman uses a laptop on April 3, 2019, in Abidjan. - According to the figures of the platform of the fight against cybercrime (PLCC) of the national police, nearly one hundred crooks of the internet, were arrested in 2018 in Ivory Coast, a country known for its scammers on the web, has announced on April 2, 2019 the Ivorian authority of regulation of the telephony. (Photo by ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP)
According to PCMag, VPN network provider NordVPN surveyed just over 1,000 people in the United States, all aged 18 or older, on how they feel about their presence on the web. And what the survey found was telling.
Over half of the participants said they'd like to delete themselves from it completely; a slightly smaller group said they don't trust it, and the smallest pockets of folks either wish that the web never existed in the first place or have never even used the internet at all.
Aside from that, these people were also asked about the kind of personal data they don't want others to see online. Again, the results are very interesting and perhaps indicative of how aware people are of the potential privacy risks of using the internet as a whole.
Just over half of all participants (53%) said they don't want strangers spying on their financial information, while 9% were weirdly okay with it. 35% didn't want anyone to see their medical info compared to 14% who were fine with it, and 34% of all respondents were not okay with people reading their personal emails and texts (compared to 10%).
NordVPN also asked whether anybody would be willing to pay to be anonymous online to cap things off. They found that 31% of the participants are willing to spend as much as $100 on anonymity, 12% would pay as much as $500, and only 3% are okay with spending as much as $1000 and beyond to hide their identity on the internet.
These survey results seem to point to a relatively good understanding of online privacy among ordinary folks. But maybe more is needed if the internet is to be made truly safe for anyone to use.
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Read also: How to Keep Your Online Footprint Safe From Prying Eyes
The Internet Is Not As 'Anonymous' As You Think It Is
By now, you should know about online trolls, right? These are people who think that posting online is completely safe because it offers what they believe is a veil of anonymity. But that's where they're completely wrong because the internet is not as anonymous as they think it is.
Here's an example: your browser's Incognito mode. You think that by using it, you're free to browse the web as you wish because it doesn't save your browsing history. But according to researchers from the University of Chicago and the Leibniz University of Hanover in Germany (via CNBC), even using Incognito mode does not hide your activity from your employer, internet service provider (ISP), or even somebody else who might be spying on you right now.
Sargent Sheena Adams, 25, US Marine with the FET (Female Engagement Team) 1st Battalion 8th Marines, Regimental Combat team II works late into the night on her laptop on her reports on November 12, 2010 in Musa Qala, Afghanistan. There are 48 women presently working along the volatile front lines of the war in Afghanistan deployed.
This then begs the question of whether you can really delete yourself from the internet if you want-or need-to. If nowhere on the web is private, then that's the only way to maintain true online privacy, right?
Related: 5 Reasons Why You Should Take Your Online Privacy Seriously
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Written by RJ Pierce
