The survey was conducted in a number of cities with populations above 500,000 and covered 1,680 respondents aged over 18. According to the results of the survey, 97% of respondents do not trust companies to protect their personal information, about 88% believe that they can’t control the amount of personal data companies collect on them, and about 93% think companies are vulnerable to cyber attacks.

When asked about the most dangerous threats likely to be faced by humanity in the nearest decade, the majority of the participants of the survey replied it was terrorism (59%). However, almost one in four respondents (24%) mentioned the growing access to personal data as a global threat, and 28% pointed to the growing reliance on technologies. Almost 61% of the respondents admit, to a greater or lesser degree, that sometimes they wish they could go off the Web completely and live in a world without mobile phones and the Internet. However, 88% agree that it’s virtually impossible to do so now.

As for trust, the survey shows that most Russian consumers draw a line between what kind of data they are willing to share with companies and what kind of data they aren’t ready to provide. Only 12% are ready to share their passwords, while 24% don’t mind providing their credit card data. Almost all respondents (97%) understand that when they browse the Web some information about them is collected. Many respondents think that companies track their browsing history (about 74%), their location (73%), and their search history (70%).

Russian consumers lay a lot of emphasis on protecting their data from cyber attacks and data theft: 60% of consumers say they won’t do business with a company any more if they learn that their sensitive information has been stolen.

On the whole, 78% of respondents believe that companies collect user data with the sole purpose of making more money. According to PwC, global revenues from handling user data will reach 300 billion dollars in 2018.