The difference between men and women in their approach to online privacy and security

Pew Research estimates that 84 percent of American adults use the Internet where privacy and security are lacking. What do Internet users want in terms of security and privacy? What are they doing to protect their privacy and security while using the Internet? Hide my ass! (HMA) has commissioned a nationwide survey to find out. The main results showed a significant disconnect between what people want and what they do, while a deeper look revealed interesting differences between men and women. This is the first article in a series examining attitudes and actions regarding online security and privacy among different demographic groups. The second article looks at the differences between older and younger millennials, and the third article does the same for baby boomers and everyone else.

HMA is a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service provider. VPNs hide a user’s identity, location, and Internet activity by encrypting user data and routing their Internet connection through multiple IP addresses and remote servers. At the time of writing, HMA’s network consists of over 100,000 IP addresses and over 900 servers in over 300 locations worldwide. HMA summarized the results of its survey with an attractive infographic and a more detailed report. The received key is simple and straightforward. While most people want more Internet security and privacy, they do little to use the tools and techniques available to deliver what they want. The survey found that 70 percent of consumers say they limit their level of social media use to avoid revealing personal information. However, only 25% enable strong privacy restrictions on the social media platforms they use. Likewise, 67 percent say they want more layers of security, while only 9 percent use email encryption programs, 11 percent use a VPN, and 13 percent use two-factor authentication.

HMA commissioned Morar Consulting, an international company specializing in measuring and consulting on brand performance, to conduct its survey. Both HMA and Morar were very generous in sharing their time and full survey data sets with me to write this article. The survey conducted by Morar included a representative sample of 2,028 Internet users in the United States, collected in November 2015. Data was collected using the Crowdology panel. Crowdology is an online research company that pays people to take online surveys. The use of paid pollsters raises concerns about whether the sample in the HMA survey is representative of the population of US Internet users. Morar has done his best to address these concerns. More than 900 data points, which can be used to match samples to the population, are collected for each person in Crowdology’s collection of pollsters. The HMA survey was balanced with the US population in terms of gender, age, marital status, geographic location, occupation, and income. Morar drew the sample from a pool of 4 million people living in the United States. Another factor to consider is that some of the findings discussed below are close to the margin of error for the population groups discussed. For these two reasons, it is better to consider what follows in terms of possible trends rather than confirmed statistical regularities.

The statistics of trust in cyber space in women and men are shocking!

Men and women who responded to the HMA survey differ in their use of the Internet. Thirty-eight percent of women, compared to 31 percent of men, indicated that they typically spend 35 hours or more per week on the Internet. Women were also more likely to use social media for personal reasons (45%) than men (37%). While women are more likely than men to use social media for personal reasons, their attitudes toward social media are significantly less positive. Respondents were asked to answer “My friends don’t need to” on a scale of 1 (“This doesn’t describe me at all”) to 5 (“This describes me very well”). . Check me out to know what’s going on in my life, I post everything online. More men agreed with this statement (26% answered 4 or 5) than women (16%). Consistent with the view that social media presence is an acceptable substitute for actual social interaction, men valued social media outcomes more than women. 28% of men, compared to 20% of women, somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement that “the number of followers, mentions, photos, etc. makes you more successful or popular on social media.” Men (24 percent) were also more likely than women (17 percent) to agree that they want their social media posts to generate a lot of engagement.

Caution in sharing between men and women
Women in the sample were much more careful than men about the information they shared. When asked, “When using social media in your personal life, to what extent would you say you openly post with privacy/viewing restrictions?” 31% of men but only 18% of women responded that they post fairly or very openly. Additionally, 78 percent of women and 63 percent of men said they were unlikely to share personal information such as their date of birth, real address, or social security number on a social media profile, with 76 percent of women compared to 60 percent of men. Men said they were very unlikely to provide this information when chatting online with a friend. Women tend to spend more time online and use social media for personal reasons more than men. Women are also more cautious about what they post online and are less likely to equate their social media presence with personal popularity or success. How are these differences reflected in the ways men and women seek to protect their privacy and security online?

The risk of men and women being hacked
Men (66 percent) are slightly more likely than women (61 percent) to report having had a security problem, such as having an account compromised or hacked, or accidentally installing spyware, malware, or a virus. However, women were significantly less confident (52%) than men (33%) that they are protected against a range of security problems such as phishing, phishing or hacking into their bank, computer or online accounts. While women felt less secure, they were more likely (68 percent) than men (65 percent) to say they would like to have access to additional layers of protection online.

How to protect yourself in the virtual platform between women and men
An interesting difference between the ways men and women protect themselves online emerged in the HMA survey. Women rely more on personal protective equipment than men. For example, it has already been noted that women are more careful than men about the personal information they share online. Women (62%) also use personal privacy settings more than men (49%). After experiencing a security problem, women (61 percent) are more likely than men (51 percent) to make lasting changes to their online behavior to protect against future problems.

On the other hand, men tend to rely somewhat but consistently more on technical means of protection. Men are more likely to use VPNs (13% vs. 8% for women), email encryption programs (10% vs. 7%), IP masking sites (10% vs. 5%), password managers (20% vs. 5%) have 17%, privacy-enhancing browser extensions (18% vs. 13%) and two-factor authentication (15% vs. 12%).

Security problems of women on the Internet
Men may be more confident than women that they are protected online because they rely more on technical means of protection. Men may also be uninformed about online safety. The HMA survey asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement “there is no real risk in sharing personal information online.” It is hard to imagine that anyone with even a little knowledge of the Internet would agree with this statement. However, 22 percent of men somewhat or strongly agreed, compared to 15 percent of women.

Additionally, while men are slightly more likely than women to report experiencing security issues, they are significantly more confident about being protected online. There is an obvious disconnect here. When you consider all of this in combination with the many ways that women are more careful about the information they share online, one can’t help but conclude that women are more sensible than men about protecting themselves online.

Is your online privacy and security adequately protected?
The Panama Papers uncovered schemes to hide money among the powerful, rich and famous. The iCloud photo hack embarrassed celebrities, while the Ashley Madison hack did the same for people hoping for an extramarital affair. Adobe and Target hacked credit and financial card information for nearly 150 million people. The recent hack of the MedStar hospital chain in the Washington, DC area put the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of hospital patients at risk. Edward Snowden shined a bright light on the unprecedented and unimaginable levels of NSA spying on the private lives of American citizens. Most, if not all, people affected by these hacks think they are safe. they were not.

HMA not only documented the disconnect between what people want and what people do about online security, but also provided useful profiles of the different types of Internet security users. They also put together a short quiz so you can see your security profile. And finally, I would like to thank the HMA for their generosity in providing full access to the survey results, without which this article would not have been possible.