Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Consumers almost as willing to share data as pay money to get access to communication services, survey finds

15 Sep 2015, 8:09 am

Almost as many consumers in Europe would prefer to share their personal data with communication service providers than would prefer to pay a fee in return for gaining access to those services, according to new research.

A ComRes digital consumer survey (20-page / 1.35MB PDF) carried out on behalf of the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) found that 32% of consumers "would prefer sharing their personal data with a service provider" if it meant they were "not charged a monetary fee for using a service".

In contrast, 34% of consumers said they would "prefer being charged a monetary fee for using a service" if it meant they did not have to "share personal data with the service provider", the survey report said.

In total, ComRes this summer surveyed 9,011 consumers aged 15 and over from nine EU countries, including the UK, Germany and France, for their views on a range of communication services issues.

According to the survey, consumers believe banks are the best at informing them at how they handle their personal data. ComRes said 63% of respondents said they believed banks performed fairly well or very well in this respect, compared with 49% and 48% of consumers who said their email service provider and insurer respectively performed well in informing them about use of personal data.

Telecoms operators are better at informing consumers how they handle their personal data than internet-based communication service providers, according to the study.

The report also highlighted strong consumer support for organisations to be subject to data breach notification requirements. According to the survey, 88% of consumers believe banks should be "legally required" to inform them if they suffered a breach of their personal data they were holding. More than three quarters of respondents support similar obligations being imposed on telecoms operators, insurers, email service providers and social networks, it said.

Telecoms companies operating in the EU are already subject to data breach notification rules. Proposed new EU data protection laws will extend duties to report personal data breaches to all organisations, under certain circumstances.