Personal data security remains among the issues of concern for Russians, with 56.8% of country residents avoiding revealing their passport data whenever possible to prevent theft and unlawful use, according to a survey by AlfaStrakhovanie conducted ahead of Personal Data Protection Day.
Sixty-two percent of respondents do not allow making copies of their passports when checking in hotels and prefer to fill out documents manually. Thirty percent of respondents opt out of providing their passport data whenever they can.
Seventy percent of respondents change passwords to their Gosuslugi public services account and other accounts where their passport data are stored every month to prevent unauthorized access. The main reason why Russians are afraid of their data being stolen is because perpetrators might take out a loan in their name, 94% of survey takers explained.
Eleven percent have already dealt with ID theft in the past, resulting in police involvement to stop extortion by debt collectors. Three percent of passport data theft victims had to resort to court to prevent their bank accounts from being frozen on the grounds essentially fabricated by scammers when their passport data were used to manufacture fraudulent IDs and take out multiple microloans.
The online survey was taken by 1,094 people from 36 Russian regions, the majority being men aged 35 to 45.