Study: users will share personal data when they trust collectors
New research carried out by the Open Data Institute (ODI) has found that the general public are comfortable sharing personal data if they trust the organisation collecting it and have been told how it will be used.
Among the most trusted institutions are The NHS, financial groups and local government, according to ODI’s analysis of a YouGov poll of almost 2,000 users. Of those surveyed, 94 per cent said trust was a key factor in their decision to share information with a given organisations, while 64 per cent said they would trust the NHS.
Despite numerous data breaches in the UK over the past year, including the Care.data breach that affected thousands of NHS patients, just under half of those in the survey said they would happily share medical data if it would contribute to the development of new treatments.
Respondents also rated banks and other financial groups on par with friends or family in terms of trustworthiness – 57 per cent said they would hand over their data to either group – with local government and online retailers ranking third (41 per cent) and fourth (22 per cent) respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum, only one in 10 respondents said they trusted social media companies with their personal data.
Younger people were found to be more trusting than their parents’ generation: one in four younger respondents said they would trust Facebook or Twitter with their information, compared to just one in 20 of those aged 45-54.
Researchers did point out that the public are generally hesitant to share data thanks to a lack of education, with a third of respondents saying they would feel better about it if organisations disclosed how they would use data.
ODI’s CEO Jeni Tennison said that the findings proved that more needs to be done to educate the public about sharing data confidently.
“At the ODI we want consumers to feel more confident and informed about data. Data literacy is not a solution for all problems – we will always need strong regulation and well-designed, ethical services – but it is part of the answer to building and retaining trust in data,” she said. “Improving data literacy is partly down to organisations designing services that are far more proactive and transparent in explaining how they use customer data.”
