New data from Cohesity, the data security provider, has revealed that consumers worldwide are highly concerned about the information companies collect from them, especially when it’s used for artificial intelligence. 

According to Cohesity’s survey of over 6,000 consumers around the world, the majority of people (73% in the UK) are critical of companies for collecting too much of their personal or financial data.

As well as concerns about companies’ insatiable appetite for data, the findings show that an average 82% of consumers now expect better safeguards around personal information once it’s obtained. 

The data shows that any failures around data protection, or even cybersecurity, come at a high cost, with a near consensus among respondents in all three countries (over 90%) saying they might stop doing business with a company if it were the victim of a cyberattack or data breach.

Meanwhile, 9 out of 10 consumers are concerned about how AI will impact the way companies keep customer data secure. 

Nearly all consumers (87% in the UK) are concerned that AI will make securing and managing their data much more challenging, while 70% said that they are concerned by the unrestricted or unpoliced use of AI with their data, and are demanding greater transparency and regulation.

At bare minimum, 74% of consumers want to be asked for permission before their personal or financial data is fed into AI models.

The expectation of greater transparency also applies to the common practice of sharing data with third-party providers, with the vast majority of respondents (79%) wanting to know who their data is being shared with, and a similar number (77%) calling for companies to vet third-party providers’ data security and management practices.

That might be because close to half of those in the UK said they had been personally impacted by a cyber-attack (46%), although more than half (56%) said they don’t think companies should pay ransoms to cyber-attackers to get back their data.

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“Consumers clearly understand that companies have a lot of catching up to do in the area of ​​data governance and security,” said James Blake, global cyber ​​security strategist at Cohesity.

“The hunger for AI is causing some businesses to skip threat modeling and due diligence on how their data will be exposed. Consumer trust is quickly lost, and competitors are always just a click away, so ensuring AI strategies don’t introduce additional risk to customer data is crucial.”