The Dutch have become more cautious about sharing their personal data. Last year, 89 percent of the population took measures to protect their personal data. In 2021, the figure was 82 percent. This makes the Netherlands the leader within Europe. This is evident from research conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) among more than 6,500 Dutch people aged 12 and older.
One of the main ways to safeguard personal data was by limiting access to profile data and posts on social media. More than three-quarters of Dutch people (78 percent) refused to share location data. A slightly smaller group (70 percent) shielded their profile data from the outside world. In 2021, this was still 55 percent. Over 60 percent of those surveyed last year did not give permission for their personal data to be used for commercial purposes.
Looking at age, those over 75 do the least to protect their data. Of this group, only 60 percent are concerned with this. Men and women aged 18 to 25 are the most active: of them, 95.8 percent take measures to shield their personal data. In other age groups, the proportion is a fraction lower.
Furthermore, CBS research shows that we are more concerned about our Internet activities being tracked by large technology companies such as Google and Meta. Last year, a quarter of respondents (25.3 percent) said they were not worried about this. Six in 10 Dutch people (60.1 percent) said they were somewhat concerned, 14.6 percent very concerned.
By comparison, in 2021, 30 percent of the population was not concerned about monitoring our Internet activities, 54.6 percent were somewhat concerned and 15.4 percent were very concerned. So reports of cyberattacks and data breaches have caused us to think more critically about what data we share online in recent years.
Taking figures from Eurostat, it appears that the Netherlands leads the way in securing personal data. Of all EU countries, 92 percent of people aged 16 to 75 took measures to protect personal information on the Internet. Following the Netherlands are Finland (91 percent), Ireland (82 percent), the Czech Republic (82 percent) and Denmark (81 percent). In Romania and Bulgaria, people took the fewest measures, 46 percent and 50 percent, respectively. The European average was 67 percent.
Among the Dutch population, 81 percent restricted or denied access to online location data, the highest proportion within the EU. Compared to other Europeans, Dutch people are more likely to check the security of a website before leaving personal data.
