46% online shoppers not aware of the UK’s data privacy laws

Who do shoppers think is most responsible for protecting their data and what steps are they taking to ensure that their data is not unlawfully stored by a web browser? Are they willing to pay more for private services and are they aware of the laws that safeguard their data? We share insights into these questions from a study of online shoppers in the UK.

Data privacy is important for consumers in the UK and most consumers are willing to share their personal identification data with companies. It is also worth noting that the usage of that data by the companies is more important for UK online shoppers than what information is being collected.

Interestingly, although 70% of the respondents stated in part one of this series that they are happy to share data for better services, in this second part we will see how they are not willing to pay more for a private version of a product or service. We will also look at the sentiments of respondents around guest checkout, data regulation and compliance, and personal preferences like the choice of browser, use of incognito mode etc.

This study was conducted in July 2022 based on the responses collected from 1,023 respondents above the age of 18 in the UK —for the full methodology, scroll to the bottom of this article.

Google Chrome is the most preferred web browser

There have possibly been growing concerns among people about the use and abuse of the data being collected by web browsers. In the same light, we asked online shoppers in the UK which web browser they use and the following are the results:

In addition, when we asked survey-takers if they seek privacy-focused companies or services online —for example ProtonMail, DuckDuckGo, Mozilla Firefox, and Signal— almost a third of them responded with the answer sometimes (30%), followed by never (27%), and rarely (20%).

Moreover, 47% of the respondents said that they never use incognito mode when shopping online, while 31% of the respondents said that they use it sometimes.

More than half of respondents accept website cookies

Many web browsers could possibly be moving away from 3rd-party (3P) cookies which means that marketers would have to adapt themselves to the ‘cookieless future’, according to Forbes. When we asked our survey-takers how they interact with forms asking to accept cookies, more than half of the respondents (53%) accept all cookies. However, 36% of the respondents said that they decline some but not all cookies.

Moreover, it is also interesting to note that more than half of the respondents clear their browser cookies sometimes (53%), followed by 33% of respondents who state they clear them often.

56% of online shoppers prefer to checkout as a guest

Guest checkout enables online shoppers to make a transaction on a website without creating an account. Online shoppers are opting for ‘ guest checkout over data privacy fears’. This is reflected in the fact that as many as 56% of respondents prefer to checkout as a guest when making a purchase with a new online retailer.

Interestingly, a combined total of 85% of the respondents said that it is somewhat (48%) or very important (37%) for companies to offer a guest checkout option in order to gain their trust as a new customer.

Companies should be responsible for protecting data privacy

The National Cyber Security Centre has laid out guidance for the online shopper to help them shop securely. That being said, when we asked our survey takers who they think should be most responsible for their data’s protection, the majority (54%) of surveyed UK shoppers think that it’s the companies that should be most responsible.

It is also somewhat (49%) or very important (41%) for surveyed shoppers that a company indicates compliance with relevant industry regulations in order to gain their trust as a new customer.

46% online shoppers not aware of the UK’s data privacy laws

There are several regulations within the UK that aim to safeguard consumer data and present guidelines on business best practices. One of them is the Data Protection Act, which is the UK’s implementation of the general data protection regulation (GDPR), to help individuals with data privacy.

In order to gauge the level of awareness about this among online shoppers in the UK, we asked them “ Does the UK have a comprehensive data privacy law? ” and surprisingly, 46% of the shoppers state that they are not sure about it. Moreover, 44% of those surveyed think that the UK does have a data privacy law to protect their data.

It is also interesting to note that according to 76% of the surveyed online shoppers, GDPR is meant to protect the online privacy rights of consumers in the UK.

51% shoppers do not want to pay more for private services

Many companies these days potentially offer a private version of the product or services as an extension of their regular services to customers who are willing to pay more. Would online shoppers in the UK also want to opt for similar services?

Majority (51%) of surveyed British shoppers state that they do not want to pay more for a private version of a product or service —wherein the company will not collect or monetise their personal information or online activity. It is also interesting to note that 42% of the respondents are still willing to pay a little more for a private product or service, while 7% said that they would pay a lot more.

Study highlights

In this article, we looked at how consumers feel about paying for private products or services. The study also highlighted some of the major concerns among our respondents with respect to their personal information being collected by browsers in the form of cookies, along with their sentiments regarding checkout-less shopping, and regulatory laws in the UK. Below, we list some of the key findings from our surveyed consumers:

1. 57% of the respondents use Google Chrome as their web browser and surprisingly, 47% said that they never use incognito mode when shopping online.
2. 53% of survey-takers accept all cookies when encountering a website’s cookie authorisation form.
3. 56% of online shoppers prefer to checkout as a guest when making a purchase with a new online retailer.
4. 54% of surveyed UK shoppers think that it’s the private companies that should be most responsible for the protection of their private data.
5. 46% of online shoppers said that they are not sure if the UK has a comprehensive data privacy law.
6. 51% of online shoppers do not want to pay more for private services in order to prevent companies from collecting or monetising their personal information or online activity.