5 May 2014, 07:00

New survey results show half of all New Zealanders (50%) say they are more concerned about privacy issues over the last few years than they were previously. It is the highest level yet recorded in that category in the UMR survey conducted for the Privacy Commissioner and represents a 25 percent increase since the 2012 survey.

The two-yearly public opinion survey Individual Privacy & Personal Information is being released today to coincide with Privacy Week 2014.

The popularity of the biggest social networking platform in New Zealand continues to grow with 61 percent of the respondents saying they were on Facebook.

Fifty-four percent of respondents said they did not feel in control of the way social networking services use and protect their information.

Among those on Facebook, 77 percent say they have changed their Facebook privacy settings, up from 74 percent in 2012 and 67 percent in 2010.

Women (81 percent) are more likely than men (72 percent) to report changing their privacy settings on Facebook.

Parents of children under 18 years of age (82 percent) are also more likely than other respondents (73 percent) to have changed their privacy settings.

Social networking sites are also increasingly being recognised as public spaces with 55 percent of New Zealanders saying that they see their social pages in this way - up from 43 percent in 2012.

Men are a little more likely than women to see social networking sites as public spaces (60 percent versus 51 percent) and people in the South Island (70 percent) are more likely than people in the North Island (50 percent) to see them as public spaces.

Survey respondents were asked about their attitude to posting photos online.  Eighty-five percent of New Zealanders on Facebook believe that it is polite to ask people before posting photos of them.

Forty-two percent of New Zealanders report that they have ‘untagged’ photos of them posted by someone else on Facebook. 51% of people under 45 years report doing this.

The survey is based on a nationwide survey of 750 people aged 18 years and over and was carried out from 13-17 March 2014.

ENDS

Note for Editors:

The complete 2014 UMR Individual Privacy & Personal Information report is available here.

The margin of error for a sample size of 750 for a 50% figure at the 95% confidence level is +/- 3.6 percent.

Privacy Week is an annual event to raise privacy awareness among the public and organisations. For more information about Privacy Week 2014, visit www.privacy.org.nz.

For more information, contact Charles Mabbett 021 509 735.