Online search privacy statistics show a consistent tension: many people are concerned about data collection, yet fewer understand privacy notices or routinely change the settings that govern tracking. The figures below cover U.S. adults surveyed in 2023, EU internet users in 2023 and UK adults surveyed in March 2024. Because the studies use different populations and methods, their percentages should be compared as indicators, not as one combined survey.
Contents
- How Americans perceive privacy risks and control
- What people do with privacy policies
- Tracking, cookies and private browsing choices
- Device, password and account protection
- Privacy knowledge, confidence and behavior gaps
- EU and UK privacy and cookie-control statistics
How Americans perceive privacy risks and control
Pew Research Center’s 2023 study of U.S. adults found that privacy concern is widespread, but confidence in personal control is mixed. Seventy-eight percent said they trust themselves to make the right decisions about their personal information online. At the same time, 61% were skeptical that anything they do to manage online privacy would make a difference, and 37% felt overwhelmed figuring out what they need to do.
The strongest concerns centered on commercial data use and identity. Forty-two percent were very worried that companies would sell their information to others without their knowledge, while 38% were very worried that someone would steal their identity or personal information. Concern about law-enforcement monitoring was lower: 15% were very worried about what law enforcement might observe online.
| Privacy issue among U.S. adults | Share reporting concern or limited control |
|---|---|
| Very or somewhat concerned about companies’ use of collected data | 81% |
| Very or somewhat concerned about government use of collected data | 71% |
| Very little or no control over data collected by companies | 73% |
| Very little or no control over data collected by government | 79% |
Source: Pew Research Center, “Views of data privacy risks, personal data and digital privacy laws in America”, 2023. These results describe U.S. adults surveyed May 15–21, 2023.
The pattern is important for search privacy: people can feel personally capable of making good decisions while also believing that the broader data environment is beyond their control. That combination helps explain why privacy-protective behavior often focuses on individual settings rather than on trusting companies or public institutions.
What people do with privacy policies
Privacy policies are a major point where concern does not necessarily become informed consent. In Pew’s 2023 U.S. adult survey, 56% said they often or more frequently click agree without reading privacy policies. Another 22% said they sometimes do so, while 18% rarely or never agree without reading. The figures describe reported behavior, not an independent audit of every consent decision.
Age differences were pronounced. Seventy-two percent of U.S. adults under 30 said they often or more frequently agree without reading, compared with 39% of adults 65 and older. Education did not eliminate the pattern: 68% of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree said they often or more frequently agree without reading, versus 58% of those with some college experience.
Many respondents also questioned whether the documents are useful. Sixty-one percent said privacy policies are not too or not at all effective at explaining how companies use their data. Twenty-seven percent called them somewhat effective, and 7% said they are extremely or very effective. Sixty-nine percent viewed privacy policies as something to get past, compared with 27% who saw them as meaningful to product or service decisions.
Pew’s related analysis found a particularly notable overlap: 45% of U.S. adults were concerned about company data use while also frequently agreeing to privacy policies without reading them. This is a behavior gap rather than evidence of indifference. A person may recognize the risk while facing long, technical or time-consuming notices at the moment a service is needed.
Tracking, cookies and private browsing choices
Several common privacy actions were reported by substantial shares of U.S. adults in 2023. About 68% of U.S. social-media users said they had changed social-media privacy settings. About 68% of U.S. adults said they had declined or turned off cookies or other website tracking. Nearly half, 49%, had stopped using a digital device, website or app because of concern about how personal information was used.
Search privacy tools were less commonly reported than cookie controls. Forty-four percent of U.S. adults had used a browser or search engine that does not keep track of what they do, and 36% had used a messaging app or service that encrypts private communications.
Age and education were associated with some of these choices. Among adults under 50, 49% had used a browser or search engine that does not keep track of activity, compared with 38% of adults 50 and older. Encrypted messaging had been used by 42% of adults under 50 and about 30% of those 50 and older. Turning off website-tracking features was reported by 72% of adults with some college experience or more, compared with 56% of those with a high-school diploma or less.
Knowledge and concern also did not always translate directly into action. Among highly knowledgeable U.S. social-media users, 86% of those age 18 to 49 had changed privacy settings, compared with 74% of those age 50 and older. Yet among the most concerned U.S. adults, 34% had not changed the digital products they use because of company data-collection concerns.
Source for this section: Pew Research Center, “How Americans protect their online data and privacy” and “How Americans’ online privacy choices relate to their knowledge, tech confidence and data concerns”, 2023.
Device, password and account protection
Privacy protection also depends on routine device and account practices. Among U.S. smartphone users surveyed by Pew in 2023, 42% set their phone operating system to update automatically. Another 37% updated when notified, as soon as convenient. About 20% updated only when required, and 3% said they never updated their smartphone operating system.
Phone access controls were more common than timely updating. Eighty-three percent of U.S. smartphone owners used at least one security feature such as a passcode, fingerprint or face recognition. Sixteen percent never used a security feature to unlock the phone. The age gap was substantial: about 30% of owners 65 and older did not use a phone security feature, compared with 11% of owners under 50.
Password decisions revealed a near split. Fifty percent of U.S. adults generally created a password they believed was more secure even if it was harder to remember, while 46% chose one that was easier to remember. At the same time, 69% felt overwhelmed by the number of passwords they had to track, 45% felt anxious about whether their passwords were strong and secure, and 41% often or more frequently wrote passwords down.
These figures describe practical constraints around privacy. A user may value a strong password but still face password fatigue, uncertainty and competing demands. The result is that privacy behavior is shaped not only by awareness, but also by convenience and the effort required at each decision point.
Privacy knowledge, confidence and behavior gaps
Pew’s 2023 knowledge assessment asked U.S. adults five privacy and cybersecurity questions. Twenty-one percent correctly answered at least four. Fifty-five percent answered two or three correctly, while 24% answered zero or one correctly. The distribution indicates that high confidence should not automatically be treated as high privacy knowledge.
In the same study, 53% of U.S. adults were very confident in their ability to use computers, smartphones or other devices online. Thirty-six percent were somewhat confident, and 11% had little or no confidence. Concern about corporate data use was also distributed across levels: 35% were very concerned, 46% somewhat concerned and 19% not too or not at all concerned.
Tech confidence was associated with selected protective practices. Forty-one percent of the most tech-confident U.S. adults used a password manager, compared with 17% of those least confident in their tech skills. Among the least tech-confident adults who owned a phone, 66% used a passcode lock, and 55% had ever declined cookies or other website tracking.
The last two figures are a useful reminder that lower technical confidence does not mean no protective behavior. Different controls may be easier to understand or more visible. A passcode lock, for example, is a direct device action, while evaluating a privacy policy requires interpreting a company’s data practices.
EU and UK privacy and cookie-control statistics
Eurostat reported on EU internet users who had used the internet in the prior three months and described activities in that same prior period. In 2023, 73% managed access to their personal data online in at least one way. The most common listed actions were refusing permission to use personal data for advertising, at 54%, and restricting or refusing access to geographical location, at 51%.
Other actions were less common. Forty-one percent limited access to their profile or content on social networks or shared online storage. Thirty-six percent read privacy-policy statements before providing personal data, and 35% checked that a website was secure before providing personal data.
Country shares varied. Finland and the Netherlands each reported 93% of internet users managing access to personal data online, the highest EU country shares reported by Eurostat. Romania reported 52%, the lowest EU country share in the cited release.
Source: Eurostat, “How internet users protected their data in 2023”, reporting 2023 activity.
UK cookie behavior shows a similar gap between acceptance and understanding. In a Savanta online omnibus of 2,316 UK adults aged 18 and older conducted in March 2024 and weighted by age, gender, region and social grade, 48% normally accepted cookies on a new website and 21% normally rejected them. Forty-seven percent reported limited to no understanding of what websites do with their information after cookies are accepted.
Only 17% of UK adults said they always read cookie preferences, policies or settings on a new website, while 40% said they never read them. Among those who always read cookie notices, 48% reported a very good understanding of how their information is used. That compares with 9% among people who read notices sometimes and 5% among those who never read them.
The UK results also identify what could make notices more usable. Among adults who sometimes or never read cookie notices, 53% said a short, concise version would encourage more frequent reading, and 46% said simple, clear language would help. Only 13% said nothing would persuade them to change that behavior.
Source: Information Commissioner’s Office, “Cookies and Online Privacy Omnibus: Summary of findings”, March 2024.