The Ping Identity Consumer Survey found that 77% of respondents have already stopped setting up an online account to sign up for websites for reasons such as asking for too much personal information and too many security measures.
3,400 consumers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France and Australia were asked about their experiences with website registration and their attitudes regarding online privacy.
More than half of respondents abandoned an online service when they found that logging in takes too long, and 63% said they would probably switch to a competitor if they had a simpler experience with identity authentication.
Richard Bird, chief customer information officer for Ping Identity, said companies need to change their security and privacy methods to meet modern expectations.
Some 60% of respondents support the idea of storing their personal information in a digital ID on their smartphone, but 46% would prefer to use a service or website that offers an alternative to passwords.
In addition, 44% admitted to using weak passwords, while 29% said they only partially change an old password. 15% said they simply reuse an old password. Surprisingly, about 40% of respondents said they do not remember the answers to their security questions at least half the time.
Users are also showing an increasing interest in understanding how websites and online services use their information: 85% say they are eager to know how their personal information is shared and 72% say it has been difficult to find this information.
In the U.S., almost 70% of respondents say they have stopped using an online service due to privacy concerns, more than 70% of respondents have changed their profiles to tackle privacy issues, and the problem is even more obvious for Gen Z, 89% of whom have revised their profile settings to tighten privacy.
60% of respondents cancelled an account due to privacy concerns, and almost 50% of respondents have done so more than once. Consumers are also willing to call customer service to terminate blocked accounts, with 77% of U.S. consumers having done so, compared to 62% in Germany and 66% in France.
For more information, read the original story in ZDNet.
