28/10/2009

Online retailers have come bottom in a survey to see which sectors Brits felt their personal data was safest in.

The poll, conducted by security firm Symantec, questioned UK consumers on how safe they felt their personal information was, using a score of one to six, with one being the highest.

At the top of the list was the banking sector, scoring three, with online retailers coming last with a score of 3.7.

Telecoms, traditional retail and the public sector were also included in the survey.

Chi-Chi Liang, senior product marketing manager for data loss prevention at Symantec, said the results show that businesses 'have some way to go to convince the public that personal data is safe'.

She added: 'These results show a general concern about the safety of personal data held by private and public sector organisations in the UK.'

Ms Liang said that the reason behind the 'low level of trust' in online businesses is most probably due to the 'many high-profile instances of data loss' in the past few months.

Earlier this week, hackers attacked the Guardian Jobs website, stealing the personal information of 'up to half a million users', the paper said.