Despite a dramatic rise in New Zealanders' use of social networking, 83 percent of 750 respondents in a UMR Research survey released by the Privacy Commissioner today said they were concerned about the security of their personal information on the internet.
"I would like to see confidence higher and confidence being well-founded in business handling and government handling of information," commissioner Marie Shroff told NZPA.
Businesses were becoming increasingly aware that being trustworthy with information was a competitive advantage, and were making improvements, she said.
"I have to say I'm slightly less confident that government's got that yet."
The survey found that trust in health service providers holding information was at 94 percent, followed by the police at 88 percent, Inland Revenue at 84 percent and ACC at 68 percent.
More than half of respondents (61 percent) said they were concerned about personal information being shared between government agencies.
Less trusted were private sector businesses, with 65 percent of respondents saying they trusted retailers and 64 percent trusting insurance companies.
Eighty-eight percent of those surveyed were concerned about information shared by children on the internet, and 79 percent were concerned about the security of personal information held by overseas businesses.
The rapid expansion of the internet was a digital revolution with a long way to run yet.
"Although people are excited by it, and all of us find tremendous benefits and advantages from it, I think what we've done is tapped into concern which inevitably is going to be part of major and rapid change," she said.
When Ms Shroff became commissioner nearly seven years ago, there was no Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Youtube, and it was hard to predict what would come along next.
Fewer than half of respondents (43 percent) said they used a social networking website like Facebook, but that was up from 32 percent in June last year, and 14 percent in August 2007.
The number of social networking users who believed the sites were mainly private spaces where they shared information with their friends was surprisingly high, at 57 percent.
"I think we need to raise people's awareness that if you put something online, you are effectively publishing it," Ms Shroff said.
"Social networking is new, and I think people are only now just becoming aware of the risks."
More than half of the respondents who used social networking websites said they were concerned about what the sites used their personal information for, and 55 percent said they were uncomfortable with search engines and websites tracking their internet use to deliver targeted advertising.
Along with counterparts from several European countries, Israel, and Canada, Ms Shroff last month signed a letter to Google's chief executive raising concerns over the use of personal information by the company's new social networking application, Google Buzz.
There was a need to develop new rules and new ways to deal with the fast-changing environment, from introducing international standards or treaties, to self-regulation or businesses deciding that to keep customers they had to be trustworthy, she said.
Consumers were also able to flex their muscles to get businesses to change.
The survey was released as part of the Pacific-wide Privacy Awareness Week, which runs May 2-8.
