Women More Worried About Hosting Data Online Than Men

I don’t know if it’s because the Fappening was all about female celebrities, or if women are generally more aware when it comes to protecting their online privacy, but a new study would suggest the latter.

Apparently, women are more fearful than men about selling and hosting their online data following the revelations of US and UK internet surveillance.

The study by Swiss datacentre Artmotion, called “Understanding the true value of online data in the UK”, looked into the public’s attitudes of online privacy and found that 63 per cent of UK women are still very worried about hosting their data in the US in light of high-profile privacy breaches such as the Edward Snowden revelations, the regular attacks by hacktivist group Anonymous and the iCloud hack of nude celebrity photos from the likes of Jennifer Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst.

In comparison, 44 per cent of men surveyed said they are still worried about hosting information in the US.

Just 35 per cent of women said they are neither more nor less worried about hosting their data in the US now (compared to 46 per cent of men). Whilst only two per cent of women said they are less worried about hosting their data in the US now (compared to 10 per cent of men) – highlighting that female internet users are more alert to the dangers of hosting data in the US than their male counterparts.

In addition, the survey also revealed that 70 per cent of women in the UK are less keen on the idea of selling their data nowadays compared to 53 per cent of men who shared the same view. Only 28 per cent of women said they would be just as willing to sell their data now, while just two per cent said they would be more willing to sell their data now.

The survey also found that there is a real battle between the sexes on data security attitudes.

Women are particularly protective of their financial information (58 per cent compared to 43 per cent of men) and contact information (48 per cent compared to 38 per cent of men), while men are much more conscious of others having access their spending patterns (31 per cent compared to eight per cent of women).