The Privacy Paradox, a Challenge for Business

People around the world are thrilled by the ease and convenience of their smartphones and Internet services, but they aren’t willing to trade their privacy to get more of it.

That is the top-line finding of a new study of 15,000 consumers in 15 countries.

The privacy paradox was surfaced most directly in one question: Would you be willing to trade some privacy for greater convenience and ease?

Worldwide, 51 percent replied no, and 27 percent said yes. (The remainder had no opinion or didn’t know.) There were country-by-country differences, but there was a consistency to the results, especially in the developed nations. The United States was 56 percent no and 21 percent yes. Britain was almost identical -- 55 percent no, 18 percent yes. Germany was most privacy protective -- 71 percent no, and 12 percent yes. India, by contrast, had the highest yes percentage -- 48 percent, to 40 percent no.

The study, conducted by Edelman Berland, a market research firm, and sponsored by EMC, the data storage giant, has some other intriguing results with implications for business. Consumers worldwide seem to strongly agree with the notion that there should be laws “to prohibit businesses from buying an selling data without my opt-in consent” -- 87 percent.