More than half of Singaporeans worried about data privacy: report

The number of people with data privacy concerns trailed India but was above the US, UK, and France.

Privacy concerns about data collected by digital devices remain a big deal for 56.2% Singaporeans although 78% of users indicated that online digital technology has improved their lives.

The country is second only to India globally and well above US (49%), UK (43%) and France (50%), a report by cloud service provider Limelight Networks found.

On a global scale, 47% voiced concerns about the privacy of data collected by digital assistants and 43.2% are worried hackers accessing the devices.

Meanwhile, online streaming has overtaken theatres and TVs as the primary means of watching films and TV shows in Singapore. About 41.8% of local consumers said that they stream movies online compared to 41.4% who prefer going to the theatres. More than half (59.6%) of consumers further indicated that they’d rather stream TV shows than watch it on the telly.

In addition, 48.7% of Singaporean consumers agreed that they cannot live without their mobile phones even for a day. As a result, almost all (93%) consumers admitted that they have expressed frustrations whenever digital content takes too long to load.

The report also found that 26.4% of Singaporeans own security devices such as cameras and doorbells, higher than the US (17.4%), Italy (22.4%) and India (24.5%). However, 63% of users are willing to give up the use of smart home devices for a week, which according to Limelight Networks indicated that whilst their popularity in Singapore continues to rise, local consumers are not heavily reliant on the devices yet