MANILA, Philippines — More than a third of Internet users want to delete themselves from the Internet if given the opportunity, according to a joint survey commissioned by cybersecurity company NordVPN and personal data removal company Incogni.
The survey conducted between June 28 and July 10 this year involved 6,800 respondents over the age of 18 from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.
According to the survey, 35% of users would delete themselves from the Internet and nearly half of all respondents don't want to know personal information about other people even if it were available online.
Roughly the same amount of respondents are afraid of getting hacked and don't know how to remove personal data from the Internet, though more than half are confident such data hasn't been leaked or stolen.
The three kinds of data people fear would cause the most fear if leaked are their finances, personal texts, and medical records.
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In fact with 76% of people fearing their finances leaking, 58% want to delete their personal financial information.
The results are an increase from a similar survey NordVPN commissioned in 2022, where 30% of people wanted to delete themselves from the Internet.
"The shift in people's attitude and their increasing need to delete their presence from the internet highlights a trend: People are no longer passively accepting the idea that their data should live on the Internet forever," said the company's chief technology officer Marijus Briedis.
As such, Briedis suggested being mindful of information being shared online, adjust social media privacy settings, use virtual private networks, and protect accounts with strong password or multi-factor authentication.
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