While governments and companies say they are paying more attention to cybersecurity, a new survey suggests the overwhelming majority of Canadians remain worried about the security of their personal information online.
The survey done for the Digital Identity and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) shows that 39 per cent of respondents are extremely concerned and an equal number somewhat concerned that their personal information is being compromised online.
In a telling statistic, only 31 per cent of respondents said they either strongly or somewhat agree they trust social media sites to keep their personal information safe. That compares to 83 per cent trust in governments and 81 per cent trust in financial institutions.
Trust in retail companies, internet providers and travel sites is roughly 50-50, while trust in e-commerce companies is a bit higher.
DIACC has been working for five years on a digital identity framework for the public and private sectors so Canadians can more easily and securely buy goods and services online, as well as produce identity in person without always needing to produce documents like drivers licences or health cards. Often this would be done through an identity app on a smartphone.
In a commonly-cited example, young people would be able to prove their age to enter a bar without showing a driver’s licence, which has their home address. The app would merely confirm the owner of the smartphone is above the legal age. Similarly, an app could confirm legal age for a person buying cannabis online, or getting a loan.
DIACC is now in the home stretch of its work creating a Pan-Canadian Trust Framework for public an ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
