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What is the National Privacy Test?
The National Privacy Test evaluates how people in different countries understand online security and privacy issues. The test scores internet users’ digital habits, digital privacy awareness, and digital risk tolerance.
Methodology
NordVPN launched an open-access survey National Privacy Test in November, 2020. 48,063 respondents from 192 countries responded to 20 questions that evaluated their online privacy skills and knowledge. Drilling down to an individual country level, analysis was performed only on countries where the number of respondents was higher than 400.
People around the world
Results.
Digital habits
Respondents prefer to skip the walls of text, even though these agreements provide essential information about data security and privacy practices. Don’t skip and agree!
46.2% of respondents believe that incognito mode increases their online privacy. It doesn’t. Incognito mode leaves your internet activity visible to your ISP or the websites you visit.
Before allowing an app to use their data, respondents judge whether the app actually needs it to function. If the access is not necessary, they deny the request.
Privacy awareness
Internet of Things (IoT) devices are trailing behind other internet-enabled devices in terms of security. IoT devices can discreetly record audio and video, they are poorly encrypted, and there’s no standardized way to control them.
Strong passwords should include lowercase and uppercase letters, punctuation, numbers, and symbols. Whenever possible, they should be at least 14 characters long. Most importantly, every account should have a unique password.
Digital risk tolerance
Even if someone claims they’ve infected your devices and provides your own password as proof, you should never respond to such emails or provide more information. Immediately change the compromised password, report the email as spam and, if necessary, contact the authorities.
If you receive such a strange request from your bank about providing sensitive data or transferring your funds, contact your bank directly to make sure it is not a phishing attempt. Never dial the number provided in an email — trust only legitimate sources.
Download free PDF with in-depth country data
We’ve analyzed scores from 21 countries with the highest number of respondents
Find the detailed country-by-country data in the PDF below. You’ll download an in-depth analysis of the results from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, the UK, the USA.
Digital privacy outliers
Of the 21 analyzed countries that participated in the National Privacy Test, Germany performed the best. The country leads in all aspects of digital privacy knowledge.
The country scored the lowest in 2 out of 3 aspects of digital life and got the worst overall score.
It got the worst digital habits score out of the 21 analyzed countries.
Profiles
Models based on common characteristics of respondents.
Amy
Cybersecurity is her native language.
Age: 45-54
Occupation: IT
Marital status: single or in a domestic partnership, no children
Should be more aware of:
What tools to use to become more private online (60/100).
How to secure their home Wi-Fi network (71.5/100).
Which types of data internet providers collect as part of metadata (81.8/100).
The importance of reading terms of service of apps and online services (84.7/100).
Privacy and security issues common in internet-enabled devices (86.7/100).
Understands
How to respond after a notification that an unknown device has tried to log into their email account (100/100).
What to do when an email from a bank informs that someone withdrew money from their account (100/100).
The dangers of saving their credit card details in their browser (99.6/100).
Which data to share with their apps via app permissions (99.6/100).
How their devices might get infected with malware (99.5/100).
Key findings
With age comes wisdom, at least when we’re talking about women. The National Privacy Test score among 15-44 years old women is 52.5/100. However, women of 45+ years old perform better (score: 57/100).
Men present an opposite case. Younger men (15-44 years old) score higher: 67.5/100. The older segment performs a bit worse (score: 66.3/100).
There are the most top performers among unmarried couples without kids: 15,7%.
In questions regarding social media, women demonstrated significantly less knowledge associated with privacy issues. They are more likely to share personal details than men. Men scored 72.5/100 in social media-related questions, while women scored 55.1/100.
There are the most worst performers among single parents with kids: 31.7%.
Inhabitants of North America and Europe are better at privacy than inhabitants of Africa or South America.
Industry Map
| | NPT score: more than 80 | NPT score: less than 50 | Net score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government, public sector | 14.9% | 13.0% | 2% |
| Education | 9.4% | 23.9% | -15% |
| Health services | 11.4% | 19.1% | -8% |
| Manufacturing | 9.9% | 19.1% | -9% |
| Construction | 8.2% | 22.9% | -15% |
| Financial services | 12.5% | 14.0% | -2% |
| Trade, transportation | 9.3% | 17.8% | -9% |
| Student | 9.6% | 19.9% | -10% |
| Leisure and hospitality | 7.8% | 21.9% | -14% |
| Information technology | 23.8% | 5.2% | 19% |
| Media, press, communications, marketing | 10.8% | 13.4% | -3% |
| Unemployed, retired | 7.9% | 17.6% | -10% |
Top 5 weak spots in cybersecurity education
- 1.
34% of respondents proceed without paying any attention to the terms of service in apps and online services they use.
- 2.
49% of respondents believe that clearing browsing history makes them more private online (it certainly doesn’t).
- 3.
40% of respondents don’t know that Facebook can collect their personal data even if they don’t have a Facebook account.
- 4.
29% of respondents do not update their apps as soon as the update is available.
- 5.
15% of respondents have no problem sharing their personal details (name, email address) on Instagram or other social media platforms.
For journalists
Get localized, country-specific infographics and reports about countries you’re most interested in. Find all materials for journalists below.
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