Data Breaches Are on the Rise, but How Much Do People Actually Care? [Survey]

Data breaches are an unfortunate fact of modern internet life, and research shows that they’re also becoming more frequent, with a record number of breaches — more than 3,000 — occurring in 2023. That’s equal to more than 60 data breaches every week.

Though the impact can be significant, it can be difficult (and even exhausting) to care about the consequences when you’re inundated with data breach notifications every week. So we were curious — are Americans burned out from data breaches? Are the breaches the new Boy Who Cried Wolf?

To answer this, our team at All About Cookies surveyed 1,000 internet users to understand how the average person reacts to and deals with data breaches, whether they feel overwhelmed by leaks, and more.

Key Findings

• Data breach volume:
  • Nearly two-thirds of internet users (65%) have received a notice that their data was included in a breach in the last year.
  • 54% of internet users report hearing about data breaches at least once a month.
• Internet users are desensitized to data breach news:
  • 50% of respondents report they feel "desensitized" to the idea of their information being included in a data breach.
  • Less than half (46%) still check if their personal data was included in a breach when they hear about one.

The number of people who had data leaked in the last year

Once a company discovers their system has been compromised and user data has been exposed in a breach, they typically alert users to the incident and the potential danger it poses to personal information.

Here’s how often that happens:

Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents (65%) said they’ve received at least one such notification from a company or website they use in the last 12 months. Typically users receive multiple reports of this kind in a year, with respondents saying that they received 2.4 data breach notices in the last 12 months on average.

Internet users are inundated with data breach news

Beyond official alerts sent by an impacted company, data breaches frequently make headlines in the news. This is especially true when the leaked data comes from a high profile company such as Facebook or Yahoo, or when the exposed data includes especially impactful information such as financial records and account numbers or private medical information.

When asked how often they see or hear news stories about data breaches, more than half of people (54%) said that they see such a story at least once a month. Half of that total actually report seeing stories more frequently than that, as more than one-fifth (21%) see news stories about data breaches every week and 6% say they see those kinds of reports on a daily basis.

Only 3% of people say they never see news stories about data breaches, and just 4% see them a single time per year. That means that the vast majority of people, 93%, are seeing or hearing multiple news reports relating to data breaches during the year.

How do users react to a data breach?

It’s one thing to hear about a data breach, and another to check if your own data was included in the leak. So how do people typically respond when they learn of a breach?

When it comes to taking action or doing nothing in the wake of data breach news, we found that most people tend to take the latter course of action. Just 46% of people say they take the time to look up whether their own data was included in a breach, while more than one-third of people (34%) say they rarely or never check into the status of their data after learning of a breach.

Does America have data breach fatigue?

Another reason some people may not take the time to look into every leak and exposure they hear about may be that data breaches are so common that many people have become apathetic towards them.

Hearing about breaches constantly can make them overwhelming and produce feelings of hopelessness and a “why bother” attitude, especially among people who have been told their data was likely compromised in the past but not suffered any major consequences because of the leak.

When asked if the survey respondents feel desensitized to the thought of their data being potentially compromised in a data breach, opinions were split right down the middle.

One way this can manifest is by deliberate inaction in the face of confirmed danger, such as that demonstrated by nearly a quarter of people (24%), who said they have at least one account or password they haven’t changed or secured in any way even though they know for certain that it was included in a data breach.

The data people are most concerned about

When it comes to data breaches, it makes sense that users would care more about certain pieces of information getting exposed than others. We asked respondents to tell us what information they would be most and least concerned about having leaked.

Identity theft can be a massive headache to deal with and recover from, so it comes as no surprise that nearly every person surveyed (97%) said they would have a high level of concern if their social security numbers were to be leaked in a data breach.

Financial losses can be similarly devastating, so it also makes sense that almost everyone would be very worried if their banking details (94%) or credit card information (87%) were to be exposed.

Following those crucial pieces of data on the importance hierarchy is social media login information, according to our survey responses. Two-thirds of people said they would have high levels of concern should their login data be leaked, higher than those who expressed similar worries about things like having their physical address (62%) or medical history (60%) released without their consent.

Measures people are taking to protect themselves

With data breaches being as common as they are, many internet users have some safeguards in place that they feel will minimize or eliminate the danger that comes from leaked data.

57% of those we asked said they currently use some kind of credit monitoring service that they believe will alert them when there is a true threat to their data.

Nearly the same percentage use password managers, which can include features that alert users when a saved password is found in a collection of leaked data in addition to making it quick and easy to update compromised passwords.

Tips for keeping your data safe

Despite the prevalence of data breaches, you can still take plenty of steps to help ensure your identity and personal information stay safe online.

• Learn about PII. Your personally identifiable information (PII) can include details like your name, address, or Social Security number (SSN). This information can reveal your identity to online criminals if compromised.
• Protect and manage your passwords. Using a password manager to keep passwords out of the hands of criminals and track when passwords have been compromised can go a long way towards securing personal data.
• Actively monitor your identity with ID theft protection software. With so much of your information online, ID theft software can help keep an eye on your information so bad actors don’t use it maliciously.

Methodology

All About Cookies surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults in October 2024.

Only responses from survey takers who indicated they had been alerted that their data was included in a breach in the last year were included when evaluating how many people have not changed a password or account they know has been leaked.