Bad vibes are big news in privacy right now, with the public feeling isolated in securing their sensitive information from companies, governments, AI models, and scammers.
That’s the latest from Malwarebytes research conducted this month, which revealed that the vast majority of people are concerned about wrongful data access from nearly every corner of their lives. For example, 89% of people “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they are “concerned about my personal data being used inappropriately by corporations,” and another 72% agreed or strongly agreed that they are “concerned about my personal data being accessed and used inappropriately by the government.”
The anxieties are easy to trace.
In just the first three months of 2025, the UK government asked Apple for access to encrypted cloud storage for users across the globe, the US government exposed active Social Security Numbers in releasing files related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, and the announced bankruptcy of genetic testing company 23andMe prompted many customers to delete their data.
Against this backdrop, many users are taking privacy into their own hands. More than 40% of people have stopped using either TikTok, Instagram, or X (formerly Twitter), and 26% stopped using a fertility or period tracking app. A robust 75% said they “opt out of data collection, as possible,” and 23% have gone a step further, using a data removal service to help clean up any personal information that is easily found online.
These findings come from a pulse survey that Malwarebytes conducted of its newsletter readers in March via the Alchemer Survey Platform.
Broadly, Malwarebytes found that:
- 89% of people are “concerned about my data being used by AI tools without my consent.”
- 70% of people “feel resigned that my personal data is already out there, and I can’t get it back.”
- 77% of people said that “many online transactions today, from purchases to downloads to creating new accounts, feel like ploys to take my data.”
- While 87% of people “support national laws regulating how companies can collect, store, share, or use our personal data,” 60% feel that “we will never have simple, meaningful ways to protect our data.”
- To protect their personal information and that of their family, at least 40% of people have stopped using Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter).
- 26% of people stopped using a fertility app or period tracking app.
Institutional distrust
The public believe that the biggest threats to their privacy right now are AI models, companies, governments, and, well, pretty much every single interaction they have with the internet at large.
Aside from the 89% of people concerned about their data being “accessed and used inappropriately by the government,” another 50% said they were concerned about wrongful government access of their “private conversations.”
Elsewhere, an astounding 89% of people said that they are “concerned about my data being used by AI tools without my consent.” It is unclear exactly where these fears lie. People may be concerned that AI tools are scraping public websites for their information—like the facial recognition company ClearView AI does by scouring articles, mugshot websites, and publicly listed social media profiles—or they may fear that tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are recording “conversations” or questions for future use.
Exacerbating these concerns is, likely, the current murkiness around AI technology and what it requires to function. The New York Times is currently suing OpenAI for allegations that its large language model wrongfully ingested the outlet’s copyrighted articles as training data, human contractors that helped train the AI recognition systems for Roomba vacuums mistakenly leaked sensitive photos on Facebook, and a national mental health support chatline siphoned off some of its users’ conversations to train an AI-powered customer support chatbot in an effort to boost funding.
But it isn’t just AI that the public distrust, it’s also the many ways they’re forced to engage with the internet, overall, as 77% agreed or strongly agreed that “many online transactions today, from purchases to downloads to creating new accounts, feel like ploys to take my data.”
They may have a point. Downloading a mobile game can reveal your location data to countless ad companies, searching for airline tickets on a Mac device can force you into paying higher prices, and buying a car can subject your sex life—seriously—to data collection. And these are the largely legal consequences of everyday life! Real-deal cybercriminal campaigns like “malvertising,” that abuse Google search results to direct victims to malicious websites, only make matters worse.
Amidst this landscape, the public broadly agreed that they wanted privacy protections that, unfortunately, they feel no one is going to grant them.
A full 87% of people “support national laws regulating how companies can collect, store, share, or use our personal data,” while 70% also believe “we will never have simple, meaningful ways to protect our data.”
So, in the absence of legal or corporate protections, the public are taking matters into their own hands.
Individual action
The dire privacy concerns shared by many respondents have, for the most part, not resulted in privacy nihilism. In fact, a heartening 60% of respondents did not agree that they have “become less vigilant about my data privacy and security because there is little I can do these days.”
Instead, as Malwarebytes found, many people have started disengaging from major online platforms and adding privacy-conscious tools and habits to their daily regimen.
For instance, to protect their and their family’s personal information, 47% of people said they “stopped using TikTok,” 45% said they “stopped using X” (formerly Twitter), 44% said they “stopped using Instagram,” and 37% said they “stopped using Facebook.” Another 26% said they “stopped using a fertility/period tracking app.”
Elsewhere, 69% of people said they “use an ad blocker for online browsing,” and 75% of people “opt out of data collection, as possible.” Another 42% said they use a VPN, which can provide an extra level of comfort by encrypting all web traffic when connecting to public or unknown Wi-Fi networks.
Malwarebytes also found that 69% of respondents said they use “multifactor authentication,” or MFA. MFA is one of the strongest security protections against account takeovers and hacking, requiring that login attempts aren’t approved with just a username and password, but with a separate piece of information, like a one-time passcode that is texted to a user’s device. Though understood as a cybersecurity best practice, MFA also strengthens a user’s privacy. After all, thieves don’t hack into accounts just for fun—they hack into accounts to sometimes steal any sensitive information stored within.
Finally, a smaller percentage of people said they use identity theft protection solutions (43%) and personal data removal services (23%). These are critical tools for catching and stopping identity theft, and for making it harder for scammers to find and target victims.
Malwarebytes understand that privacy isn’t “easy” right now—it never necessarily has been—but that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. Thankfully, many people responded that, despite their serious concerns, they aren’t about to take corporate and government privacy invasions willingly. That’s the type of attitude that the public needs more than ever, and we’re grateful to see it.
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