On the occasion of Safer Internet Day being celebrated globally with the theme - Together for a better internet, OLX, India’s classified’s platform released findings from the company’s 2019 Internet Behaviour Survey. The survey with 26,000+ netizens reveals the attitudes and behaviour towards safety – both online and in general, with the aim to drive awareness and a call to action to all users to actively play a part in creating a better internet, and especially for younger users.
The survey reveals that a majority of netizens neglect cybersecurity best practices in their own personal lives, and do not monitor the content their kids view online. 57 per cent respondents show negligence towards their own safety – both online and offline, while 60 per cent admit to not monitoring the content their kids view online. The Internet Safety survey by OLX India was conducted online with 26,000 internet users between the ages of 18-55 years in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Hyderabad.
67 per cent said they skipped the terms & conditions or any other safety/legal guidelines while signing up to a website or using a product. 54 per cent said they had not changed the password to their social media accounts in the last 6 months, while 31 per cent said they cannot even recall how long it had been since they had last changed their password. 56 per cent have also freely shared their mobile number on their professional or social media profiles
A similar neglect towards safety measures is observed with police verification of household staff. 75 per cent confirmed that they had not conducted a police verification or did not know if one had been done. Only 25 per cent confirmed having observed this process for household staff. Delhi respondents were the highest among those who said they observe this process for household staff, followed by Mumbai.
Contradictory to this overall neglect that netizens show to safety measures, there exists a high degree of awareness with financial safety. 68 per cent said that they had never shared their OTP or password for their bank account, social media accounts, laptop or phone with anyone.
“The internet has come to dominate our lives like never before. It is in our interest, therefore, to use it in a manner that continues to improve the quality of our lives while staying safe by implementing the same level of caution we exercise in the real world. Safer Internet Day is a great time to reflect on our personal attitudes and behaviours, and make a concerted choice to take actions that ensure our own safety and that of our children”, said Lavanya Chandan, General Counsel, OLX India. “At OLX, it has been our continuous endeavour to educate our users to exercise caution on the Internet and provide them with the tools necessary to be safe. I am happy to share that OLX will very soon roll out one of our biggest upgrade to the platform to-date that is characterized by an improved modern user interface and enhanced user privacy features”, he added.
OLX India also runs many initiatives to educate its users to be safe and responsible online. OLX WebAware is a consumer safety initiative to educate its users about safe online practices and guidelines. OLX has a dedicated OLX Trust & Safety helpline number - 9999140999 (10:00 am to 07:00 pm.) to assist users to seek clarity and avoid fraudulent activities. OLX also works closely with Law Enforcement authorities to create awareness on the issue and ensure adherence with the law.
