New Study Shows Online Sales Are Affected By Identity Theft Concerns

Submitted by Mike Adams on Fri, 06/24/2005 - 3:46pm

Over the last couple weeks, more than 40 million people have had personal information lost or stolen. A new study by Conference Board, reported in the Baltimore Business Journal, shows that about 41 percent of buyers say they have reduced their online shopping because of concern about possible identity theft. In the New York-based organization's study, 13 percent also said that someone in their household has been the victim of identity theft.

While this is definitely cause to be careful of who you give personal information to, it should be noted that not all of the events were actually identity theft. In many of the cases, data was missing (a missing tape, for example) but it is not clear whether the information was stolen or misplaced.

It is debatable whether it is more dangerous to give your credit card number online or to give your credit card to a waiter or waitress who walks off with it for five or ten minutes. Any increased danger online is likely more due to the fact that most people's personal data is now stored on many computers - regardless of whether they are doing online transactions.