Online Privacy Attitudes Statistics (2026)

What people in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK say about privacy: how worried they are, how much control they feel they have, whom they trust and how much they understand.

By Siddharth ShankarUpdated October 12, 202642 statistics · 6 sourcesCite this page

Key takeaways

• Control is the common complaint. 73% of US adults feel they have little or no control over data collected by companies and 79% say the same for government (Pew, 2023).
• Concern is high and rising in places: 91% of Canadians are at least somewhat concerned about identity theft, with the “extremely concerned” share rising from 47% in 2022 to 54% in 2025 (OPC).
• Trust in technology companies is low. 12% of Canadians have at least a fair amount of trust in social media companies to protect their information (OPC). 40% agree that businesses respect their privacy rights.
• Privacy policies do not help much. 71% of Canadians find them difficult to understand, and 69% of US adults see them as something to get past (Pew).
• Australians increasingly look to regulators: 29% say government or regulators are responsible for protecting personal information, up from 15% in 2023 (OAIC).

United States: Pew Research Center (2023)

Pew’s 2023 report is based on a survey of 5,101 US adults conducted May 15–21, 2023. It is the most recent Pew study of this kind that we verified, and it compares with 2019 where Pew did.

Pew reports that the shares saying they have little or no control have ticked down compared with 2019, and gives no 2019 percentages in the text we read, so none are shown for that row.

Canada: Office of the Privacy Commissioner (2024–25)

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) runs a recurring public opinion survey. The 2024–25 telephone survey asked 1,500 Canadians aged 16 and over between February 10 and March 3, 2025. Results are accurate within ±2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Australia: OAIC Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey (2026)

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) surveyed 1,504 Australians aged 18 and over for its 2026 report. The previous survey in 2023 had 1,626 respondents. Where the OAIC reports on a subset, such as people affected by a breach, the base is shown.

United Kingdom: ICO Public Attitudes and Insights Research (2025)

The ICO’s PAIR study surveyed 8,019 UK adults in an online sample between January 10 and February 21, 2025, with a separate telephone sample of 500.

Attitudes and behaviour are not the same thing. People report that they lack control, yet many accept policies they have not read. If you want to act on your own exposure, our guides on checking your footprint and opting out of data brokers are practical places to start.

Methodology and limitations

Every figure on this page comes from the organization that published it, such as a regulator, a government agency or the original report. We read the source page or document directly, and we record the period each figure covers. When a number could not be confirmed against a primary source, we left it out. Rows marked “Our calculation” are simple arithmetic on published figures, and the inputs are named in the same row.

• The surveys ask different questions, use different samples and fieldwork dates, and are run by different bodies. Do not rank countries using these percentages.
• Pew’s survey is from May 2023, the most recent we verified. Attitudes may have changed since.
• The OPC and OAIC report trend comparisons with earlier surveys. We show the prior value where the source gives it, and wording changes between survey waves may affect comparability.
• Survey results are self-reported. They measure perception, not actual practice or actual exposure.

Counts of reports, complaints and notifications measure what was reported or notified, not everything that happened. Currency symbols follow the source. Where an agency does not name its currency, we show the symbol the source uses (for example, C$ for Canada and A$ for Australia are our labels). Figures from different countries use different definitions and should not be added together. Spot an error? Tell us and include the source link; we correct verified errors and note the date at the top of the page.