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Global Survey: Online Privacy Is Hot In Egypt
Published Oct 29, 2009
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A new personal data privacy survey being unveiled by Nokia Siemens Networks at North Africa Com 2009 shows that online privacy is as hot a topic in Egypt as it is in the rest of the world. The study also indicates that communications service providers (CSPs), in particular mobile operators, are well placed to help consumers safeguard their online identity, defined by Nokia Siemens Networks as the ‘digital self’.
The Egyptian survey results are almost identical to the global findings – 83% of the Egyptian respondents view privacy as an important topic compared to 82% for the global sample, while 42% of Egyptians feel they lack control over their personal data as compared to 45% of all survey respondents.
“Egypt is going through an online revolution of its own,” said Khaled Rabie, Country Director for Egypt, Nokia Siemens Networks. “This study’s findings prove that online users here have almost the same behavior patterns and issues as their global counterparts. It goes without saying that the industry needs to address these concerns.”
Nokia Siemens Networks sees privacy as the key issue to be addressed in the evolution of online activities. A vast collection of personal information is scattered throughout the Internet in the form of ‘digital crumbs’ – the fragmented personal and behavioral information left behind every time an individual interacts with a website, or uses a mobile phone or another device via a cable or fixed network. It is these digital crumbs that Nokia Siemens Networks collectively calls the digital self.
Customers’ mastery over their digital self will grow over time, ultimately becoming the basis of comprehensive lifestyle support system that will provide them with a truly individual experience in real-time. However, if customers are to make full use of the value that lies in their digital self, privacy and security issues need to be addressed.
According to the privacy study, the more relevant a consumer perceives the benefit of a service or offer to be, the less crucial are privacy barriers. In fact, more than half of the Egyptian sample (56%) was willing to share personal data if the benefits were found to be clear, concrete and measurable. Additionally, 73% of respondents said they were interested in using a single portal to manage their personal data, while a majority – almost 75% – vouched for their mobile provider to help them manage and protect their personal data.
While consumers saw all CSPs as more trustworthy than insurance companies, search engines, online portals, loyalty card providers, governments and online shops and communities, user preferences leaned more towards their mobile provider than their landline or Internet service provider.
“The clear credibility of mobile providers in the eyes of Egyptians – higher than the findings of the global survey – points to a very real opportunity for regional operators to help their customers protect their digital self,” added Rabie.
The Nokia Siemens Networks privacy study – consisting of 9200 interviews conducted in 14 countries around the globe and 600 interviews in Egypt alone – was carried out in September 2009. It aimed to understand the attitudes, motives, perceptions and behaviors of end users towards privacy, as well as their readiness to allow the usage of their digital self data by communication service providers and third parties, and their willingness to share that data in the context of the value they could derive from doing so.
Media Enquiries
Nokia Siemens Networks:
Nada Chammas
Phone: +971 4 446 0213
E-mail: nada.chammas@nsn.com
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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