Study on Privacy Among Online Shoppers say 48% Use Private Browsing

More than one-third of all online shoppers surveyed around the world take electronic measures to protect their privacy online, according to GlobalWebIndex’s “Commerce” report, published in late 2016. Almost half (48%) use a private browsing window, while 42% delete cookies so websites don’t “remember” them, 41% use ad-blocking tools to prevent websites from serving ads to them while browsing websites, 34% use a virtual private network or proxy server to access the Internet, and 20% use anti-tracking technology.

The Commerce report explores the purchasing behaviours of Internet users around the world. The report also chronicles the types of products and services users are willing to purchase, and to what degree they purchase in the regions of the world, and by demographics groups such as gender, age and income group. News Biz Blog will publish a collection of data sets and analysis from the Commerce report, with permission, during the first quarter of 2017. For more information, go to www.globalwebindex.com. For more analysis on global digital media trends, go to World Newsmedia Network, www.wnmn.org, or and WNMN’s blog, www.NewsBizBlog.org