Dive Brief:

• More than 80% of consumers worldwide have abandoned an online brand in the past 12 months because of data privacy concerns, global data protection firm Thales Group said in a report released Tuesday.
• The study found that global consumer trust in digital services is mostly decreasing or remaining stagnant at best, even among highly regulated industries like banking and healthcare. Of 13 sectors that were rated, the majority of them experienced a decline in trust levels compared with a year earlier, with not one achieving an approval rating of at least 50%.
• “The growing trend of requiring data exchange for services, coupled with the lack of transparency and the heavy burden placed on consumers, is eroding trust,” the report said.

Dive Insight:

The decline in trust comes as nearly one in five consumers have been informed that their personal data has been compromised in the past year, according to the findings.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit advocacy group, recorded a total of 3,158 U.S. data compromises in 2024, which nearly tied with the prior year’s level. The number of data breach notices issued last year increased 211% from 2023, the group said in a report. The increase was primarily due to five “mega-breaches” that resulted in at least 100 million breach notices being issued in each event. 

Among the biggest: UnitedHealth in January said a massive cyberattack against its Change Healthcare subsidiary last year may have compromised the data of about 190 million people — more than half the U.S. population.

In another 2024 breach, a cybercriminal group claimed that it stole personal data belonging to more than 500 million Ticketmaster customers.

When it comes to protecting personal data, banking is the industry most trusted by consumers, with a 44% approval rating, according to Thales’ research.

Government is the only sector that saw an improvement, with 42% of global citizens saying it can be trusted with personal data, compared with 37% a year earlier.

Thales polled more than 14,000 consumers across 14 countries about their online relationship with brands and services, their privacy expectations, and how brands can earn their trust.