Online security measures usage by narrow internet users UK 2015

This statistic illustrates the findings of a survey on the awareness and usage of online security measures and safety features among narrow internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2015. Of respondents, 52 percent reported using anti-virus software at home, while 33 percent were not aware of this security feature. A staggering 88 percent were not aware of ad blocking software, which only saw use among five percent of respondents. Of the security features that were deliberately not used by respondents, since they were aware of their existence but didn't use them, firewalls took the first place and almost a quarter of users decided against using them.

Usage and awareness of selected online security measures and safety features among narrow internet users in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2015*

Characteristic	Use this at home	Do not use this at home	Not aware of this security feature
Anti-virus software	52%	15%	33%
Firewall	37%	23%	41%
Protecting your home WiFi connection to prevent other people from outside the home from using it	12%	14%	74%
Email filters that can block unwanted or spam emails	11%	19%	71%
Deleting cookies from your web browser	11%	14%	75%
Anti-spyware	14%	13%	72%
Ad blocking software	5%	8%	88%

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Release date

April 2016

More information

Region

United Kingdom

Survey time period

September to October 2015

Number of respondents

181 respondents

Age group

16 years and older

Special properties

narrow users**

Method of interview

Computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI)

Supplementary notes

* The original survey question was: "Before today, which, if any, of the following online security measures or safety features had you heard of?/ And which if any, of those measures or features do you have or use on any of the devices you use to go online at home?"
Responses were prompted, multi-coded.

** The source provided the following explanation of "narrow internet users": In order to assess the breadth of use of the internet, 30 of the 32 individual internet activities referenced in the 2015 report were grouped into 17 types of online use ever made by internet users. Internet users have been categorized into narrow, medium and broad users of the internet, depending on how many of these 17 types of use they ever make.

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