Indians have a high level of concern about the security of shopping online, with 82% of citizens concerned about this issue. Security concerns pertaining to the financial services sector were equally high with 82% concerned about unauthorised access to credit card or debit card details and online. This was revealed in findings from the 2020 Unisys Security Index from Unisys Corporation.
When it came to using a mobile app with facial recognition, the percentage of individuals willing to do this to avail financial services such as credit cards or home loans was considerably less as compared to other online services. Indians also expressed unwillingness to share personal data on buying habits with their banks or retailers, despite benefits such as alerts about suspicious activity or personalised offers from retailers. The top reason for this was attributed to concern around security of the data shared.
The findings also revealed that the majority of Indians are willing to share private data with the government in return for citizen benefits. This includes location data so police can find them in an emergency or data on their travel habits so they can get through airport security quickly, with 79% and 73% of respondents respectively willing to share this data with the government. The study revealed that 73% respondents were willing to share health record data with insurance companies for recommendations on addressing potential medical issues and 72% were willing to share data with government agencies to expedite access to services such as driver’s licence and government benefits.
“The findings show Indian consumers are very aware of data security threats in the digital world with financial data targeted by malicious attacks. While the pandemic has forced many of us to adopt digital platforms for financial transactions, consumers are very concerned about data security. This is a call to financial services organisations to secure their digital platforms and reassure their consumers about the safety of their digital transactions. A Zero Trust security posture is critical to building customer trust and loyalty in this space,” says Sumed Marwaha, managing director, Unisys India and regional vice president, Services, Unisys.
The survey revealed that a whopping 73% of Indian consumers are willing to share data on their travel habits with the government so they can get through airport security quickly, said Ajay Prabhakar, industry manager, Travel and Transportation, Unisys India. “The onus is now on airports to have the right mechanisms in place to enable travellers to share this data in a secure manner and use it judiciously to provide value-added services to consumers. Investments in biometric authentication, data security and analytics will help deliver a seamless and secure travel experience to travellers,” he added.
Unisys has conducted the Unisys Security Index – a snapshot of consumer security concerns globally – since 2007. The index is a calculated score out of 300 covering changing consumer attitudes over time across eight areas of security namely, national security in relation to war or terrorism, disaster/epidemic, bankcard fraud, financial obligations, viruses/hacking, online transactions, identity theft and personal safety.