How important is private data security?

The coronavirus got billions of people stranded at their homes. According to the latest Endeavor Turkey survey, around 90 percent of firms are working from home.

This has created a surge in demand for all kinds of digital services. Online meeting applications, online learning platforms, online dating applications, streaming platforms, online delivery platforms and such have all seen a sharp increase for their services.

Until two weeks ago, one of the biggest winners of this trend was Zoom. The share price of Zoom was $107 on March 16 and it rose to $159 on March 23. However, after this point, accusations over Zoom’s reliability and trustworthiness have begun and the share dropped to $117 as of yesterday.

More than a dozen security and privacy problems have been found in Zoom recently. It has also found that some data was sent to China. That’s when many major U.S. companies and schools and government offices started to ban Zoom. However, the private usage is still surging all around the globe.

That’s got me to think about the question: How do we value our private data and how important it is for us to secure it?

In a Rivetz-commissioned survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, Rivetz found that respondents were incredibly reliant on their smartphones: Two-thirds of respondents were willing to allow a friend to borrow their car for 24 hours, but the same percentage were not willing to allow a friend to borrow their smartphone for the same amount of time.

Despite fears of losing their smartphones, younger generations were found to be much less concerned about protecting their data than other generations. Twice as many Gen Xers (born from the early 1960s to the late 1970’s - 66 percent) and Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964 - 62 percent) thought it was important that all of their IoT devices communicated with one another securely than Millennials (33 percent).

Beyond the personal data we exchange between our devices, perhaps the most sensitive data any of us has is financial. Millennials and Gen Z’ers (born mid to late 1990’s) were twice as likely (14 percent) to stay signed into online banking accounts than Gen Xers or Baby Boomers (7 percent).

I have seen the same trend in the Turkish youth as well. Many are ready to let go of the ownership of their private data in exchange for a perfectly customized services for their needs.

Will this be a new norm after the outbreak? Are we, the older generations, relaxed on keeping our private data safe as well?

Would you be willing to be monitored by your phone about how healthy you are? Would you be willing to give regular reports on your body heat if a tech company would ensure that they could find out if you are infected before you would show any symptoms? Would you be willing to share a list of goods that you regularly buy if a startup offers you coupons for that information?

It is worth thinking about how much you value your personal data as I am sure that you will be asked to
share more of your life much more frequently in the coming age.