Survey: People Are More Concerned About Equifax Data Breach Than Facebook Scandal
The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is certainly the bigger headline grabber these days, but in a new survey by MagnifyMoney, we found more than half of Americans — 54%— are more concerned about the September 2017 Equifax breach than the social media snafu. Based on our survey, which polled 1,000 U.S. adults, the knowledge that information … Continue reading Survey: People Are More Concerned About Equifax Data Breach Than Facebook ScandalThe post Survey: People Are More Concerned About Equifax Data Breach Than Facebook Scandal appeared first on MagnifyMoney.
Posted — UpdatedThe Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is certainly the bigger headline grabber these days, but in a new survey by MagnifyMoney, we found more than half of Americans — 54%— are more concerned about the September 2017 Equifax breach than the social media snafu.
Based on our survey, which polled 1,000 U.S. adults, the knowledge that information like your Social Security Number and past addresses are in the hands of hackers is slightly more disconcerting than the idea of a political consulting firm using your Facebook data to influence an election. The survey was conducted March 27-28, just days after news broke about the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and several months since the Equifax breach was first made public.
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Despite these concerns, half of Americans have taken NO action to protect their data since the the Equifax breach.
As far as the Equifax scandal is concerned, 50% of Americans say they haven’t taken any action to protect their sensitive information in the months since the September 2017 breach. The most reported action was simply checking one’s credit report for shady activity, which only 22% of respondents reported having done. Ten percent have closed unused credit accounts, frozen or locked their credit files (8%) or changed their ATM PIN information (7%).
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1 in 4 people are considering no longer using the internet or apps to access bank/financial accounts:
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Facebook could lose a substantial portion of its fan base
1 in 5 Americans surveyed are considering deleting their Facebook account post-data scandal. The remainder said they would take other precautions, such as using the social media platform less often, using the “share” button less and removing things they have “liked” in the past.
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Facebook and Equifax scandals: A quick primer
Facebook: In the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, a Russian-American developer, Aleksandr Kogan, built a Facebook quiz that was able to exploit a loophole in Facebook’s app interface. The loophole helped to gather information on not only the 250,000+ people who took the quiz, but on all their friends, too — without their knowledge. Cambridge Analytica obtained that data and sold it to Strategic Communication Laboratories, a British consulting firm that worked on the Trump campaign, although the data’s sale was prohibited by Facebook. SCL group touts it’s an expert in “psychological warfare” and “influence operations.” The main issue here is the loophole that led to the initial access to users’ friends’ Facebook data. As of this writing, Facebook’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is said to testify before Congress regarding the data scandal on April 10th.
What to do to protect your data
Although the survey reports 54% of respondents were more concerned about their data being stolen in the Equifax breach, the same survey shows many Americans have taken little to no precautions to protect themselves from said identity thieves.
You are your first line of defense against identity theft. If you want to make sure you’ve done your part to protect your sensitive data and avoid the hassle of dealing with the aftermath of identity theft, you may consider taking at least one of the following precautions:
Sign up for credit monitoring
Temporarily lock your credit report with a credit lock
Freeze your credit report with a credit freeze
Make a plan to respond to identity theft
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