New research has found that while many Britons will turn off their laptop cameras for privacy reasons, a worryingly large number will just as easily plug personal information into an online game to get a result they can share with their friends.

The survey of 10,000 consumers worldwide, including 1,000 in the UK, was conducted by Arlington Research on behalf of Kaspersky, the controversial anti-malware organisation recently branded a security risk by US authorities.

The participants in the study were between 18 and 40 years old and indicated that they were interested in new technology.

The findings show that the infosec community needs to do more to educate users on how to stay safe online.

While almost half (49 percent) of respondents had taken the sensible step of covering their webcam when not in use, a similar number (44 percent) admitted to “doing fun tests or playing mini-games on social media and posting the results.” Thirty-five percent were a little superstitious about digitally forwarded messages and would send them to friends and family to prevent the chain from snapping. Twenty-five percent put their smartphone in a special case to stop hackers stealing their data.

According to Kaspersky, 21 percent of Britons believe that a magnet can wipe a smartphone. (This could be true if you used that magnet to break the device into millions of tiny pieces.) The sound you hear is the sound of a thousand IT professionals slapping their palms in the face.

It gets worse. Nearly half (40 percent) of users believe browsers’ “incognito mode” makes their activity invisible to everyone, and almost a quarter (24 percent) assume an encrypted messaging service like WhatsApp makes live links safe to use. Twenty-two percent believe iOS-based products are immune to all attempts to hack them.

That said, some concerns are grounded in reality. Forty-one percent of respondents expressed suspicion about the amount of data modern cars collect. It’s a fair question, especially after Mozilla’s damning 2023 report on the data collection habits of certain automakers.

The problem is compounded by the age group of the users surveyed. You would expect this group to be more tech-savvy, but they still seem to be subject to the same myths and misinformation that permeates the average WhatsApp group of friends and family.

David Emm, Chief Security Researcher at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team, said: “Our research underlines the importance of an informed approach to cybersecurity and digital privacy.

“To ensure safety and security, it is necessary to maintain a critical mindset and rely only on verified sources and facts. This means ignoring unproven techniques and myths, while being aware of the digital discrepancies that permeate our online lives.” ®