Online Privacy Statistics 2026

Concern is high: 81% say they feel very or somewhat concerned with how companies use the data they collect about them.

The share who say they are worried about government use of people’s data has increased from 64% in 2019 to 71% today.

Some 67% say they understand little to nothing about what companies are doing with their personal data, up from 59%.

While these shares have ticked down compared with 2019, vast majorities feel this way about data collected by companies (73%) and the government (79%).

Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne is marking Privacy Awareness Week with the release of his Office’s latest survey results, which show that nine in 10 Canadians are concerned about their privacy.

Compared to five years ago, three-quarters of Canadians are less (28%) or much less (47%) willing to share their personal information with organizations.

Privacy is a growing concern for Australians, according to a new major survey released today by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), with 87% of respondents indicating they are more concerned about privacy than they were 5 years ago.

Agreement that people have control over who uses their data and how is lower, at 35%, consistent with Wave 3 (35%) but a significant increase since Wave 2 (29%).

Some 77% of Americans have little or no trust in leaders of social media companies to publicly admit mistakes and take responsibility for data misuse.

Among those who’ve heard about AI, 70% have little to no trust in companies to make responsible decisions about how they use it in their products.

Privacy woes are increasing as trust in AI is at rock bottom, with just 4% believing that AI companies are worthy of their trust.

Trust in AI (4%) and social media (3%) is minuscule. Trust has also fallen across insurance, telecommunications, technology, retail and real estate sectors while remaining highest for health service providers (74%) and Australian Government agencies (68%).

Only 1 in 10 respondents say organisations’ real-world practices are usually fair, while 35% say they are mostly or always unfair.

In contrast, social media companies (33%) and the Government (38%) find themselves at the lower end of the trust spectrum.

Six in 10 Canadians (62%) believe that the federal government respects their privacy rights, while 40% believe that businesses do.

During this period, privacy has evolved from relative obscurity to a customer requirement with more than 75% of consumer respondents saying they won’t purchase from an organization they don’t trust with their data.

In 2025, 76.9% of EU internet users protected their data online by taking steps to manage access to their personal data, an increase of 3.7 percentage points (pp) compared with 2023 (73.2%).

Majority of internet users (58.8%) chose not to allow their personal data to be used for advertising, while 56.2% restricted or refused access to their geographical location.

Majority of internet users (58.8%) chose not to allow their personal data to be used for advertising, while 56.2% restricted or refused access to their geographical location.

Limiting access to social media profiles or shared online storage also became more common, with 46.0% of internet users taking this step, an increase of 5.0 pp compared with 2023.

In addition, 39.0% of people checked that the website where they provided personal data was secure (+4.2 pp), and 37.6% read the privacy policy statements before sharing their personal data (+1.7 pp).

The highest share of internet users who took measures to protect their data was recorded in Finland (92.6%), followed by the Netherlands (91.2%) and Czechia (90.3%)

In contrast, the lowest shares were recorded in Romania (56.0%), Slovenia (57.4%) and Bulgaria (62.0%).

Our survey finds that a majority of Americans ignore privacy policies altogether: 56% frequently click “agree” without actually reading their content.

In Q4 2025, there were an estimated 1.1 billion global ad-blocking users.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, there were an estimated 629M global mobile ad-blocking users.

In Q4 2025, there were an estimated 448M global desktop ad-blocking users.

42 percent of U.S. adults use a VPN for personal or work purposes, up from 32 percent in 2025.

General privacy (56 percent) and general security (51 percent) remained the most common reasons for using a VPN.

Access to international or non-local media and reducing online tracking tied for third at 27 percent each.

Free VPN use rebounded from 28 percent of users in 2025 to 43 percent in 2026.

Among this year’s respondents, 38% qualified as Privacy Actives, up significantly from 32% in 2022 and 33% in 2023.

The survey also highlights how many Canadians are taking actions to protect their own privacy: 78% have refused to provide an organization or business their personal information due to privacy concerns; 75% have adjusted privacy settings on a social media account; and 41% have stopped doing business with a company that experienced a privacy breach.

The survey also highlights how many Canadians are taking actions to protect their own privacy: 78% have refused to provide an organization or business their personal information due to privacy concerns; 75% have adjusted privacy settings on a social media account; and 41% have stopped doing business with a company that experienced a privacy breach.

The California Privacy Protection Agency’s (CalPrivacy) Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP) hit a major milestone with more than 300,000 Californians signing up for the free tool since its launch just five months ago.

DROP allows Californians to request the deletion of their personal information from more than 580 data brokers in minutes.

For the first time, in 2024, a majority of respondents (53%) said they were aware of their country’s privacy laws.

By contrast, among those who are aware of these laws, 81% said they are able to protect their data.

Among this year’s respondents who were aware of the privacy laws, 70% felt privacy laws have had a positive impact, up from 66% last year and 61% two years ago.

Among survey respondents, 36% indicated they have exercised their rights to inquire about data, up from 28% this past year and 24% two years ago.

Seventy percent of all respondents, and 81% of US respondents, believe that the US should implement a nationwide privacy law.

Some 72% of Americans say there should be more regulation than there is now; just 7% say there should be less.

European supervisory authorities issued fines totalling approximately EUR1.2 billion (USD1.42 billion/GBP1.06 billion) in 2025, broadly matching 2024’s figure.

The aggregate total fines reported since the application of GDPR on 25 May 2018 to 10 January 2026 across all the jurisdictions surveyed now stands at EUR7.1 billion (USD8.4 billion/GBP6.2 billion).

Significantly, the analysis of data from Europe’s data protection supervisory bodies reveals a 22% annual increase in notified personal data breaches, amounting to an average of 443 notifications per day.

In 2025, 414 cross- border cases were created in the EDPB’s case register, and 1299 procedures related to the One-Stop-Shop (Art. 60 GDPR) were triggered, out of which 572 led to Final Decisions.

In 2025, 414 cross- border cases were created in the EDPB’s case register, and 1299 procedures related to the One-Stop-Shop (Art. 60 GDPR) were triggered, out of which 572 led to Final Decisions.

The DPC received 16,160 new cases from individuals in 2025, representing a 45% increase on 2024.

The DPC finalised 4 large scale inquiries in 2025 and imposed administrative fines totalling just over €530.77m and multiple reprimands and compliance orders

Cookies, employee monitoring and data security were the main subjects of sanctions imposed by the CNIL in 2025, with fines totalling €486,839,500.

Twenty-one entities were sanctioned by the restricted committee or under the simplified sanction procedure for various breaches of the rules on trackers: storage without the user's consent, insufficient information of individuals (leading the consent not to be considered as “informed”) or failure to effectively take into account the user's refusal or withdrawal of consent.

It was in light of these factors that the restricted commitee imposed fines of €325 million and €150 million on two major players.

The survey’s findings mirror the rise in privacy complaints received by the OAIC – which have increased by 73% this financial year to date.

To resolve the allegations, Tractor Supply agreed to pay $1,350,000, implement broad remedial measures, such as scanning its digital properties to inventory tracking technologies, and require a corporate officer or director to certify compliance annually for the next four years.