The Privacy Concerns and Sharing Data survey was commissioned by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and conducted by UMR Research and is carried out every two years. Results in this report are based upon questions asked in UMR Research’s nation-wide telephone omnibus survey and UMR Research’s nation-wide online omnibus survey.
Methodology
Results in this report are based upon questions asked in UMR Research’s nation-wide telephone omnibus survey and UMR Research’s nation-wide online omnibus survey.
The telephone survey is of a nationally representative sample of 600 New Zealanders 18 years of age and over and was conducted from 21st to the 27th of March 2018.
- The margin of error for a 50% figure at the 95% confidence level for a sample of n=600 is approximately ±4.0%.
The online survey is of a nationally representative sample of 1000 New Zealanders 18 years of age and over and was conducted from 27th March to 16th April 2018.
- The margin of error for a 50% figure at the 95% confidence level for a sample of n=1000 is approximately ±3.1%.
The results of the overseas survey are based on question asked in the Capibus – Ipsos MORI’s face to face Omnibus. The survey was conducted between the 18th to 28th August 2017. The survey is a nationally representative sample of 1071 UK residents 15 years of age and over. While we have tried to replicate the methodology as best as possible, comparisons made to overseas data should be treated as indicative only.
Reporting notes:
This survey used five-point scales for some questions. When reporting the data from these questions we generally report on the sum of 1+2 of the scale (the positive end of the scale), 3 is considered the midpoint (those with a more neutral view or no feeling either way) and 4+5 (the more negative view).
For example, on a 1 to 5 support scale 1+2 are the people who declared concern about an issue and 4+5 are those who showed no concern on an issue.
Note on rounding:
All numbers are shown rounded to zero decimal places. Hence specified totals are not always exactly equal to the sum of the specified sub-totals. The differences are seldom more than 1%.
For example: 2.7 + 3.5 = 6.2 would appear: 3 + 4 = 6
Key Results
Privacy concerns
- Two thirds of New Zealanders were concerned about individual privacy. A slight rise in concern.
- Fifty-five percent were more concerned with their individual privacy - highest recorded.
- Highest levels of concern regarding specific privacy issues were for information shared by children about themselves (80%) and businesses sharing your personal information with other businesses (79%). In a new question, 62% were concerned about use of drones in urban areas.
Commission and Act awareness
- Seventy-eight percent were aware of the Privacy Commission and eighty-six percent were aware of the Privacy Act (online methodology).
Personal data sharing
- There are indications that New Zealanders tend to trust government organisations with their personal data more than those living in the United Kingdom (UK).
- New Zealanders were most comfortable with government agencies sharing personal information when accessing a government service online ; followed by sharing personal information with a company to make a retail purchase; with least comfort with sharing personal information via social media. UK residents were generally less comfortable overall.
- There was a low level of confidence in the use, storage and security of personal information by social media platforms. Similar to the UK.