New Year's resolutions go digital as people vow to cut screen time

If you haven't made or broken any New Year's resolutions yet, here are some you might like to try. Research from Kaspersky indicates that 40 percent of people plan to change their digital lifestyle in 2020 with most aiming to reduce the time they spend with their gadgets.

The research shows 42.3 percent would make a digital New Year's resolution for 2020 rather than something more traditional.

The survey reveals there are many areas of their digital lives that people want to improve on. These include reducing their screen time, which 29.1 percent of respondents decided to start doing in the coming year, or not falling asleep with a smartphone next to the pillow, which 18.3 percent of users chose to do, indicating that the idea of digital detox is still on the rise.

A quarter of respondents say they want to do more backups and clean their desktop on a regular basis, and 11.2 percent want to delete Facebook friends they've never met in person. So it seems like a desire for a more cyber-savvy lifestyle is a 2020 trend.

David Emm, principal security researcher at Kaspersky, offers some advice on how to change your digital life to the better in 2020:

Our goal at Kaspersky is to protect users from all kinds of online menace to their private life and help people get the most from their digital lives, safe from the fear of online threats. To help consumers in this, and to help make 2020 the safest year online, we encourage people to challenge their friends and loved ones to make digital resolutions to support their online privacy and follow these simple steps to keeping their digital information private:

1. Secure all devices you use for online transactions -- banking, shopping, socializing, -- by applying patches and internet security in time.

2. Use a unique, complex password for all your online accounts.

3. Review your privacy and security settings carefully and limit what can be seen and shared.

4. Disable apps and features unless you’re using them.

5. Disable tracking services and location services, and clear cookies regularly.

6. Check your email against services such as 'Have I Been Pwned' to see if any of your digital accounts have been compromised.

The research comes amid growing concerns about security and password theft, with more than half of people believing complete privacy in the digital world is impossible. You can read more in Kaspersky's 2019 privacy report.

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