Nearly one in four US consumers (39%) say they have made a change to their behaviour because they are concerned about having their personal data stolen. And, of those who have made a change, 59% say they have cut back on online shopping.
According to the newly published “2008 Data Breaches and Financial Crimes Scare Consumers Away,” reports Internet Retailer:
59% of those who have changed behavior say they have curtailed online shopping. Of those, 71% say they are more cautious about where they purchase online, 67% more careful about entering personal and financial information on web sites, 30% say they shop less online and 28% say they abandon a session if redirected to another web site to enter payment information. 15% say they have stopped shopping on the web completely, according to the survey of 5,000 consumers in September.
Among those who say they have reduced the amount they spend online, 10% say by 75% or more, 24% by 50% to 74%, 41% by 25% to 49%, 19% by 10% to 24% and 6% by less than 10%.
Among those who say they have changed the way they pay online, 42% say they more often use PayPal, an online payment service owned by eBay Inc. 27% say they use credit cards more often and 18% use debit cards more frequently. Those consumers may be aware of the payment protections offered by credit and debit card issuers, says Avivah Litan, the Gartner analyst who authored the report.