With recent data breaches in Australia dominating the news, GetApp surveyed over 1,000 people to determine which data security practices SMEs should implement to encourage customer confidence. The results reveal that a staggering 98% of respondents are concerned about cybersecurity, with 38% stating they are ‘extremely concerned’.
57% of survey-takers confirmed they are more concerned about cybersecurity than a year ago. However, 28% of the respondents of this subset stated that businesses using AI contributed to their concern.
When asked if they trust or distrust companies that use AI, the most frequent response was ‘I neither trust nor distrust them’. On the other hand, transparency around the use of AI is vital to a combined total of 71% of respondents.
When asked what security precautions individuals take when shopping online, 44% tend to read online reviews to gauge trust in a company. Furthermore, 38% of respondents either talk to friends and 38% research a company’s reputation to determine reliability.
The survey indicates that many customers want to be notified about the online security methods and processes companies use to secure their data.
At the same time, more than half of respondents (52%) ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ (10%) that they are willing to disclose personal information in exchange for better, more efficient products or services.
A substantial majority (94%) of respondents want businesses to be open about how they actively manage data security concerns, with 57% wanting to know how companies secure their data. Nearly two-thirds who prefer transparency want to know how companies handle sensitive data and expect them to report how they actively manage risks on their site.
Finally, the survey revealed that 69% of respondents would feel safer knowing about a company’s data-protection practices and rules. If given an incident response plan, more than half of respondents (53%) would feel more confident in a company’s capacity to protect their data.
The increase in cybercrime and more sophisticated cybersecurity threats worry consumers. According to our survey, consumers display security measures to protect themselves but value companies that communicate their security processes and are transparent about mitigating data security risks. Although implementing AI processes doesn’t currently contribute to data security concerns, transparency around its use is still important for consumers,” said Andrew Blair, Content Analyst at GetApp Australia
