Basic Cyber Safety Norms Being Ignored in India

Over 50% of Indian netizens neglect basic cyber safety practices, reveals a new study

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There is a startling gap in digital literacy and cyber safety practices exercised by the netizens divulges a study conducted by consumer-to-consumer online marketplace OLX, on the back of Safer Internet Day on February 11. OLX studied the behavior of close to 7500 netizens between the age groups of 18-55 to understand the state of awareness and cyber safety preparedness, thereby raising the need towards creating a safer and inclusive internet for everyone. The second edition (1st edition was launched in Feb 2019) of the annual report titled ‘OLX 2020 Internet Behaviour Study’ is an initiative to foster awareness around making the internet a better place for everyone.

“Safer Internet Day provides us with an opportunity to examine our online behavior and emphasizes upon the need to close the gap in digital literacy in general and cyber safety particularly. Cyber safety is a shared responsibility where internet users, internet companies, government and decision-makers are all in one ecosystem,” said Lavanya Chandan, General Counsel, OLX India.

“This study has been devised to study these gaps in order to address the same in the coming time. Safeguarding ourselves and ensuring that we focus on making the internet an inclusive place for all is our foremost vision and we aim to drive continuous conversations around the topic,” added Chandan.

Overall, the survey indicates that “even though we have come far in digital transformation in our daily lives, the majority of people in India prefer to transact offline and even if they do transact online, they do it for money transfer, online shopping and paying utility bills”.