Indians are more prone to share personal information like address and consumption habits online at the cost of convenience, claims a new study.
According to the global study conducted by the technology firm EMC, around 61 percent of Indian internet users accepted they were willing to trade privacy for greater online convenience.
Following Indians in the list were participants from Middle East and China/Hong Kong among whom 54 percent said they value online convenience over privacy, while those in Germany emerged as the least willing accounting for only 36 percent.
The research was conducted among 15,000 participants from 15 countries including India, Brazil, Italy, Japan, the US, Netherlands and Canada among others to study their online privacy attitudes.
The study found that while 57 percent of Indian men appeared more willing to discard their privacy for convenience, only 41 of Indian women chose convenience over privacy.
“India is a relative new comer to the Internet world and everyone is lapping it up, and therefore there is greater willingness to share and trade information for better services from consumer and e-commerce sites,” said EMC Corporation President India and SAARC Rajesh Janey.
“There is also this ‘We Want it All’ paradox as consumers want all conveniences and benefits of digital technology and yet are unwilling to trade privacy to get them. When it comes to sharing personal details for greater online convenience, Indians are more willing compared to other countries,” he said.
The worrying thing that evolved from the study was that despite knowing the risk of cyber attacks, majority of the respondents said they take virtually no special action to protect their privacy, instead they believe on those handling their information like government and businesses.
