As large data breaches continue to make news affecting everyone from insurance company clients and restaurant patrons to home improvement buyers, some American generations are more skeptical about security than others.
A recently released Gallup poll indicates one of the most tech-savvy generations also happens to be the most trusting when it comes to personal data security.
A total of 44% of millennials believe their personal data is kept private “all” or “most of the time” by those they engage in business with.
That percentage put millennials out in front of all other generations in regard to confidence about data security.
To arrive at the findings, questions related to data security were included in the Gallup U.S. daily survey conducted via telephone interviews between Feb. 23-March 3, 2015.
A random sample of 1,525 adults, age 18 and up, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia took part. The data includes a split quota of 50% landline respondents and 50% cellphone respondents.
How the Generations View Data Security
To gauge trust in data security, researchers asked respondents how often they believe their information is kept private. Here’s how the generations answered:
- Millennials – 44%, most of the time; 26%, none of the time
- Generation X – 32%, most of the time; 28%, none of the time
- Baby boomers – 32%, most of the time; 32%, none of the time
- Traditionalists – 29%, most of the time; 35% none of the time
Not surprisingly, Gallup discovered that traditionalists, those age 70 and older, are the most skeptical when it comes to data security. With only 29% of this generation believing their data is kept private most of the time, they are the only generation of the four to have a higher percentage of wariness than trust.
Taken on the whole, 36% of all respondents say their data is safeguarded most of the time while 31% believe it’s kept private little or none of the time. About a third, believe data is kept private at least some of the time.
Why Millennial Response Surprises
Known as the tech-savvy generation that has grown up in a world with smartphones and apps, millennials are thought by many to simply know better about the risks involved with technology.
Some, however, argue that millennials actually should have higher expectations than other generations because they are the least experienced and most naïve of the generations at this time.
Regardless of school of thought, millennials do have a non-trusting reputation. The survey results, Gallup points out, show that this isn’t always the case, especially in relation to privacy of personal data.
Despite high-profile breaches and knowledge of them, “millennials seem to rise above this, remaining trusting in the face of an abundance of evidence that their own online data may not be very secure,” Gallup’s John Fleming concluded.
