WHITE PAPER
Millennials and ePrivacy on the Web
September 2020 A snap-shot report by Arekibo in collaboration with ESTIEM
Table of contents
03 04 05 06 08 09 10 11
Introduction
Millennials
Behaviour
Inside ESTIEM
Safety
Security
Tracking
Personalisation
12 13 14 16 17 18 19 20
Sharing
Rights
Trust
Conclusion
The Superstar Effect
Notes on the sample
About ESTIEM
About Arekibo
Arekibo / ESTIEM / Millennials and ePrivacy Report / September 2020
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Introduction The digital revolution has been well underway for quite some time now. Digital technology has become an important, one might even say intimate part of our lives. Mobile phones, digital assistants, intelligent thermostats, smart devices reporting both their success and failures back to manufactures. These and other devices and touchpoints contribute to a vast digital fabric we interact with as part of our everyday lives; they listen to us, interpret our instructions (not always successfully, but getting better every day!) and increasingly anticipate our needs. Due, in no small part, to the prevalence of digital technologies our everyday lives we are increasing required to think about online security, privacy, tracking, personalisation. And some recent changes to the compliance landscape, GDPR, new advice on cookies and again more recently the legal unraveling of the US-EU privacy shield mean these issues are become part of our everyday conversations. And then earlier this year an event happened that accelerated the centrality of digital to everyday life. The Covid 19 pandemic was a shock to the system: unexpected, unanticipated, certainly undesired. And yet businesses, schools, universities, state bodies, even governments have managed to muddle through, due, in large part, to a digital capability which was already transforming our world. The pandemic has revealed to us both what we can achieve using digital technology but it has also exposed many of the fault-lines running through the integral role that digital plays in our lives. With this in mind we wanted to get a real sense of what digital means for millennials with a specific focus on the increasing importance of privacy, trust and security. Arekibo in collaboration with ESTIEM recently sampled 180 millennials from all around Europe, asking them some pertinent questions on web safety, tracking, privacy and trust. Here’s what we found out...
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Millennials Millennials are one of the most talked about generations in the marketing world. They are often described as “digital natives” – a generation that has grown up with an unmatched and previously unimagined level of technology at their fingertips. Millennials, also known as Generation Y (or simply Gen Y), are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Millennials are born between the early 1980s to early 2000s, which makes them 18 to 35 years old now. The majority of respondents in this report are 18 to 24 years old. Millennials came of age in a time where the entertainment industry began to be affected by the Internet. Being the first generation, growing up surrounded by digital is what makes them truly special. It means that unlike the previous generations they have developed a set of attitudes and opinions towards brands' digital presence, digital marketing, technology and social media. Millennials are often the early adopters of the latest digital innovations. Indeed 59% of all B2B buyers are millennials. Three years ago we published a white paper on "Engaging with late millennials on social media". Among other things, we have learned that Instagram and Facebook are two major platforms for 18-24-year olds. This year, with the ePrivacy and GDPR importance rising, we turned to millennials again to find out their stands on digital privacy, cookies and tracking technologies, security and trust.
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Behaviour 40% of their day is spent online, studying and working on desktop, then chatting, playing and browsing on mobile. How many hours do you spend online on average? >12h
Before Covid19
<3h
4-6h
7-9h 10-12h
After Covid19
<3h 4-6h
7-9h
10-12h
>12h
Mobile or desktop?
Work Studying Leisure Watching videos Searching for information Shopping Communication Dark mode or light mode?
67% Mobile
79% Desktop
Our survey has shown that millennials do not "go online", rather they "live online". This statement is especially true when we look at the time spent online after the Covid19 outbreak. The majority of millennials before the lockdown spent 4 to 6 hours online. Following the switch to the "new normal", millennials would spend from 7 to 12 hours on the web. The number of people surfing the web more than 12 hours a day also increased from 1.23% to 10%. Do millennials prefer mobile or desktop? While everyone is talking about the increasing importance of mobile, our survey has shown that mobile is a preferred device only when it comes to communication with friends and on social media. It still loses to Desktop in work, studying and leisure categories. When it comes to online shopping, Google reports that most browsing takes place on mobile, but the actual purchase is carried out on desktop. In the "watching videos" category, the millennials in our survey did not prioritise one device over the other, while in reality 70% of videos are watched on mobile, Google reports.
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Inside ESTIEM ESTIEM and universities are seen as highly trusted and cyber-secure organisations, while the responsibility of corporates is ambiguous. How secure are you about the information displayed about you on the ESTIEM Portal? 0
78
100
"Very secure" What are the most reliable sources to get ESTIEM's current updates?
Social media ESTIEM portal
ESTIEM members
In relation to web privacy, which two core aspects of data privacyESTIEM should invest more in?
1
Develop the digital literacy competencies of ESTIEMers through new activities
2
Invest in improving universities in delivering more digital skills and knowledge
ESTIEM is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) for students studying Industrial Engineering and Management. It has been investing on GDPR and data protection, in order to get compliant as soon as possible. These proactive measures seem to be aligned with the general interest of millennials. According to our data, GDPR and ePrivacy are the topics that the respondents are willing to learn more about. The members were asked about their perception of ESTIEM’s digital platforms. We found out that they feel secure about their information displayed on ESTIEM website, averaging at strong 77 out of 100 points. In terms of the quality of information sources, the top 3 identified as being the more reliable to get ESTIEM’s current updates are: social media channels, the website, and, finally, the members of the network. The ESTIEM newsletter, created this summer, showed high level of trustworthiness too, as it ended up at the 4th rank. ESTIEM, as a NGO holds a big responsibility towards raising awareness about these topics and working inside and outside the organization. Thanks to this survey, the 2 key directions that ESTIEM shall prioritise were identified.
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Inside ESTIEM Do you feel your university is a cyber-secure organisation? 0
79
100
"Very secure" Do you get enough sufficient training from the university on how to be digitally literate when navigating the web? 0
27
100
"Not enough" Do you feel the companies in you country are responsible regarding data handling? 0
40
100
"Somewhat responsible" Which target would you like to achieve more from the three available below?
59%
The construction of an open, democratic and sustainable society, where the rights of
personal data are respected, ICT products and solutions are more efficient and where data is not used to misinform people.
22% 19%
Delivering all the capacities and resources needed to every European country... All European companies having the same access rights, market entries, laws and data analytics...
To understand the European ePrivacy reality better, we also asked the students about the state of data security in their university. Most of them consider their university a cyber-secure organization. However, they don’t think they are receiving the sufficient digital literacy and data protection training. On the other hand, when asked about how responsibly do companies handle data, millennials seem to have less confidence. 40% believe businesses act as "somewhat responsible", and around 40% abstained from answering. To understand how the millennials' perception of data management compares to the one of the European Union, we constructed 3 goals based on the EU digital strategy by the European Commission, and asked which (if any) would the respondents prioritise: 1. All European companies having the same access rights, market entries, laws and data analytics to empower and scale up their business. 2. Delivering all the capacities and resources needed to every European country to thrive in a fair, just and safe digitalization of both professional and social life. 3. The construction of an open, democratic and sustainable society, where the rights of personal data are respected, ICT products and solutions are more efficient and where data is not used to misinform people. The results speak by themselves.
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Safety Their attitude towards security can be summed up as "better to be safe than sorry". Do you use antivirus software? Yes 26%
No 74%
YES
Do you use VPN or any other IP protection services?
NO
Yes 41%
No 59%
Do you use an adblocker on your browser?
YES
Yes 36%
No 64%
We wanted to check, if millennials are leveraging security software. The answer? Yes, nearly 75% had for antivirus software installed, and 60% had adblocker software. However, the majority of the respondents are not using a virtual private network (VPN) or similar IP protection services. One reason could be relative newness of the technology. Created in 1999, the diffusion curve is just reaching its peak now. Another reason could be that in comparison with antivirus software, there is a lack of high quality free VPN app services on the market. Our data is telling us that the majority of them are quite aware of security issues on the web. Just 28% of respondents would never check how secure is the website they are visiting. At the same time 10% would always do it, and 62% would look at it usually or sometimes.
Do you check if a site is secure? (If it is HTTP or HTTPS?) 10%
Always Sometimes
62% 28%
Never
Arekibo / ESTIEM / Millennials and ePrivacy Report / September 2020
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Security How confident are you about the security of your communications apps for online meetings?
39%
Very confident Somewhat confident Not too confident Not at all
47% 11%
3%
What are the most data-secure systems for conversations today?
WhatsApp Zoom MS Teams
With the Covid19 outbreak grew the importance of digital in general, but also of transparent and frequent communication. The crucial role of communication apps for businesses, education and person-to-person communication is evident. When choosing ones favorite communication tool several features are important. These are: the cost, the ease of use (UX), design, integration with the other devices, speed, uninterrupted service, but beyond all security. Our research has shown, that in general, millennials are not concerned about the security of their communications apps. The recent Zoom scandals regarding the data leaks have not affected the respondents views on security with 86% of the respondents "somewhat confident" or "very confident" in communications technology security. WhatsApp is viewed to be the most data-secure app, followed by Zoom and MS Teams. Slack and Skype stand as the least trusted software in the list.
Arekibo / ESTIEM / Millennials and ePrivacy Report / September 2020
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Tracking In the Era of Digital, Digital Nomads are the ones creating the rules and playing by the rules too. How would you rate your awareness of how cookies work?
42% Not aware
39%
19%
Somewhat aware
Very aware
Are you aware of how a business uses cookies?
44%
42%
Not aware
14% Very aware
Somewhat aware
When you land on a website and a cookie banner pops up, what do you normally do?
51%
Accept necessary
22%
Accept all Decline all Check options
15%
Decline all
12%
Do you regularly manage your cookie settings via your internet browser?
72%
Rarely Never
In April this year, the DPC released a report and updated guidance on the use of cookies and other tracking technologies. This report outlined that organisations are required to comply to the DPC’s guidance on website Cookies and other tracking technologies by 5th October 2020. But what do millennials know and think about cookies? According to the survey, the majority of the respondents (58%) are somewhat to very aware of how cookies work, and slightly more than a half (56%) know how businesses use them. It is not surprising, and shows millennials' high interest in data security issues online. From the commentary to the awareness questions we learned, that millennials are willing to learn more about data privacy, tracking and cookies in the near future. High awareness of how cookies work and how companies use the tracked data makes millennials question the cookies they ought to accept more and more often. Half of respondents would accept only all necessary cookies and reject all that are possible to reject. Millennials may not yet have taken full control of their activity online (72% would rarely or never manage their cookie settings, and 22% would accept all cookies), but they are definitely on their way to claim it fully.
Arekibo / ESTIEM / Millennials and ePrivacy Report / September 2020
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Personalisation "For me, all type of online personalisation can be bad, because what happens is that you create a place where only the things you like appear. Making you live in the comfort zone only." What do you think about personalisation of emails or content on websites?
"Interested"
"Don't like it" "Scared"
If you would review the cookies, which cookies would you normally decline?
"Marketing and delivery information to third parties" Do you like when an item you were previously looking is later shown to you again in ads? (Remarketing)
We also learned that the attitude towards personalisation and remarketing ranges from neutral to highly negative, with several survey participants referring to it as "scary" and "disturbing". Our survey has shown, that millennials are looking deep beyond the cookie banners, and evaluate brand experience holistically. They are concerned about how businesses use their given data, and how personalisation changes the psychology and behavior of the society.
"I normally decline all cookies that I can, especially marketing and third party cookies."
Yes, 10% Yes 10%
Sometimes, 46% Item 2 44%
No 46%
No, 44%
Millennials believe in strong brand purpose, so a majority do not see the need of highly targeted advertisement. If the product is good, it will find its customer, they assume.
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Sharing Worried, unaware and passive - are the three words to describe how millennials feel about ePrivacy and GDPR. How worried are you about sharing your personal data online? 0
69
100
"Quite worried" How aware are you of what personal data is shared? 0
48
100
"Somewhat unaware" How aware are you of what businesses do with your information? 0
10
100
"Not aware"
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area. The GDPR's primary aim is to give control to individuals over their personal data (any information relating to an identifiable person) and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU. Based on the survey results, Millennials are both - unaware of what personal information is shared and very worried about sharing any kind of personal data online.
"I feel scared because it feels me like they are stealing something from me." Personal info is vital for businesses, as it provides much better understanding of the way their consumers behave online. It is therefore important to think of why are millennials afraid to share it? One possible reason of such fear is the lack of adequate information, This puts the responsibility on businesses to provide clear and direct information of the destination and purpose of the data collected.
Arekibo / ESTIEM / Millennials and ePrivacy Report / September 2020
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Rights If you receive a newsletter or email that you don't remember signing up for, do you ask the company where they got your contact details? 11% 14%
Always Sometimes
"If I subscribe for newsletters or if I leave my name there on purpose it would be okay. But if I hadn’t done any of these I would be scared of the way they got information about me and how vulnerable I actually am there."
Rarely
26%
Never
49%
Together with the fear, we have spotted a level of "passiveness" in millennials desire to resolve their private data sharing related concerns.
Have you ever reported a data breach? Yes 12%
No 88%
NO
For example, half of the respondents would never ask the company about where did the company get permission to contact them. To add to that, only 12% of millennials have reported on a data breach. From our experience of working with large private and public enterprises, ePrivacy and GDPR are a concern for businesses too. However, we believe as long as the 7 principles of GDPR (lawfulness, fairness and transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, accountability) are abided by both parties, GDPR holds more opportunities than concerns.
Arekibo / ESTIEM / Millennials and ePrivacy Report / September 2020
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Trust “He who does not trust enough will not be trusted.” – Lao Tzu “To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.” – G. MacDonald Where would you go looking for the information about the product you are considering to buy? Company site Google
Reseller site
Where would you go to look for information about the company? Company site Company social media
What are the most trustworthy sources about a company and its products? Independent ratings, rankings Client testimonials and case studies About page
Most trustworthy
Trustworthy
Decline all Somewhat untrustworthy
There are 72.1 million millennials aged 23 to 38 in 2019 Worldwide. According to WDD, millennials are spending more money — both in store and online — than any other generation. Their purchasing power is projected to reach $1.4 trillion by the end of 2020. That makes millennials into great consumers for any brand. But they won't buy from you unless there is trust. Millennials do not just want to buy things, 83% of them want to buy from the brands that align with them on values, and have a strong purpose. The brand that they trust, and that trusts them to make their own assessment and an independent decision to choose it or not. The first place for businesses to start establishing trust is their own website. Our survey highlighted the importance of a company site, as this is the first place millennials go to find information about the products or the company. Other important channels to help brands establish trust are Google (search, business page and rankings), reseller sites (such as Amazon, Shopify, Ebay, etc), company social media and independent review sites.
Arekibo / ESTIEM / Millennials and ePrivacy Report / September 2020
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Trust Before buying a product or service do you check reviews online?
89%
Always Usually
Do you find online reviews trustworthy? 0
96 100
"Yes, usually"
35
"Not trustworthy"
The vast majority of interviewees (96%) usually or always find online reviews trustworthy. We found that 65% of the audience believed ads were untrustworthy. So, what can the brands do to establish trust with their millennial customers? Our answer is: clarity, security, transparency, strong purpose and higher ambition.
How trustworthy do you find ads? 0
Reviews have been outlined by millennials as the most trustworthy sources about the company and its products. We found that 89% of our survey respondents would usually or always check online reviews before they commit to buying anything.
100
Does it mean that you should give up your marketing and personalisation plans? No, not at all, but before you bombard your customers with ads, make sure they trust you.
"I don't mind retargeting nor personalisation, but only if it comes from the brand I like".
Arekibo / ESTIEM / Millennials and ePrivacy Report / September 2020
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Conclusion There is a popular view of millennials as technically proficient but carless about privacy (or by some accounts not interested in it at all). Another popular idea is that millennials are gullible, susceptible to the onslaught of fakes news and under-equipped when it comes to the kind of critical thinking essential to surviving today’s information overload. We think this is wrong! The results of our survey provide a different picture, a picture we think that any firm doing business with millennials needs to pay attention to. Our survey finds millennials are sparing with their trust, very concerned about what happens to their information and are very unlikely to take a brand’s claims at face value. And they are looking at brands holistically considering the sum of their digital activities before deciding whether to give them their business. They are also keeping their eyes on “creepy” profiling practices. Gullible they are not! Nevertheless, within the challenge of being the first generation of digital natives the millennial digital experience has its contradictory elements. They are overwhelming committed to the major platforms and are ready to place their trust in them despite concerns about how their data is used. In addition, there is a troubling lack of knowledge and awareness about how to establish and maintain online security from a technical perspective. And even though they are highly suspicious of tracking and their data being used to generate more personalised experiences our survey shows they do not have a mature understanding of how these technologies operate. Finally, there is a distinctly low-level awareness of what legal protections they are afforded online and how they might utilize them. What do we make of this? Business need to take these results seriously in two ways. Firstly, when targeting millennials business need to understand the crucial role trust plays in their interactions. They also need to pay increasing attention to how they use data in personalising their experiences. millennials do not want to be creeped out. Millennial worrying lack of know-how when it comes to digital security and privacy may look like an opportunity. Failure to make millennial users clearly aware of how you are using their data will backfire. As we have noted, trust is crucial to interacting with millennials online. In addition, it is overwhelmingly likely that millennials are already (or will be very soon) working for your organization, managing your data. It is of the utmost importance that we work to narrow these gaps and make digital the space in which we increasingly live, safe and pleasant for all of us.
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The Superstar Effect Out of curiosity, we also asked the respondents to share their favourite Websites and Apps with us. The results we have received were highly clustered, as most of the preferences were split between social media and entertainment sites. Instagram was named the "absolutely favourite" platform for Millennials, as it got 72 votes, which is twice the amount of the runner up - YouTube. The Superstar Effect is alive and well. This can be seen as a good reminder for us, who work with digital content management - in the battle for customers' attention, we do not only try to out-compete our direct competition, but also the whole list of sites and Apps, people truly love and use every day. The word cloud below represents all the results, and their correlation to each other - the bigger the word, the more mentions the respected site or App has received.
Netflix
Telegram
Instagram Facebook
VKontakte
YouTube
WhatsApp Spotify
Arekibo / ESTIEM / Millennials and ePrivacy Report / September 2020
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Notes on the sample Arekibo and ESTIEM carried out this survey in August 2020.
180 96% 4% Total number of the respondents
Of respondents are aged 18-24
Of respondents are aged 25-34
53% ALL 12 Of all the respondents are female
Of the respondents are students
Different countries are represented
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About ESTIEM ESTIEM - European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management. ESTIEM brings together European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management, who combine technological understanding with management skills. ESTIEM provides students with a unique platform for networking and personal and professional development. Founded 1990 75 Local Groups in 26 countries More than 180 events per year Over 2200 participants Reaching 60000 students Direct access to 8000 students
IEM Studies The focus of IEM studies lies in providing students valuable engineering knowledge as well as practical management experience. IEM integrates technological knowledge and management skills, helping students to cope with competitive business challenges while comprehending the underlying technology. Throughout Europe, IEM has many different names and many different faces.
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About Arekibo Arekibo - the digital platform agency. Arekibo are Ireland’s largest digital platform agency. We design and build the platforms that underpin and accelerate global businesses investment in digital. Over the last 20 years, we have worked with Ireland's biggest and most innovative private and public enterprises. Some of the clients we work with include: Dublin Airport, Central Bank of Ireland, University College Dublin, KPMG, Ibec. How we help our clients Delivering our digital platforms for their clients, we focus on helping them in the 4 key areas: building their global online presence, creating new digital services, adding digital commerce to their business, and consolidating their web presence. The Magic 8 The digital platform model is the 8 foundational elements, we call the “Magic 8”, required to operate your digital presence. Magic 8 include: strategy, design, technology, analytics, content management, cloud hosting, 24/7/365 support and training.
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European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management (ESTIEM) Groene Loper 35612AE Eindhoven The Netherlands membership@estiem.org ambassador@estiem.org help@estiem.org www.estiem.org
Arekibo Communications 16 Windsor Place Dublin 2 Ireland +353 1 905 2030 enquiry@arekibo.com www.arekibo.com