Only 20% of UK public trust companies with personal data

Just one fifth (20 per cent) of the UK’s citizens trust companies to keep their online information safe, a new report has revealed, while only 10 per cent of the country’s public understand how their personal data is used once collected.

According to the findings of a new survey carried out by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), only 20 per cent of British citizens polled trust private companies to hold their personal data.

The majority of the 2,153 people surveyed by ComRes on behalf of the ICO were found to have more faith in public institutions: just over 60 per cent said they thought the NHS or local surgeries were safe digital hands, while 53 per cent said they had confidence in the police’s data protection protocols.

Only 49 per cent said they trusted the government, however, or any of its various departments to keep their data safe.

The news comes on the back of a year of high-profile data breaches around the world, several of which have affected UK consumers. Attacks on TalkTalk, Debenhams Flowers and Equifax in recent months have affected an estimated 700,000 people in the UK, alongside users around the world.

Steve Wood, deputy commissioner at the ICO, said that personal data protection will become the high watermark against which companies are judged, as it is “key to improving trust and digital growth”.

The advent of the GDPR will also cement this need, ICO’s report continues, with companies being mandated to ensure customer data is not only secure, but that practices around how data is stored and used are kept transparent.

Wood adds that given GDPR’s deadline of May 2018, organisations should be very aware of what is now required of them.

He added: "It's no longer acceptable to see the law as a box-ticking exercise. Organisations will need to be accountable, to their customers and to the regulator.

"It's time for organisations to start building the UK public's trust and confidence in how data is used and made available".