Shoppers willing to hand over personal data to get a holiday bargain

A new survey from Norton shows that 60 percent of UK holiday shoppers say they are swayed by good holiday deals and nearly two-thirds (61 percent) give away their personal information to receive a discount when shopping.

The study reveals that 70 percent of Brits have tried to secure discount codes, through means like signing up to a website's mailing list or answering a survey. 61 percent of those who tried to secure discounts admit to divulging their personal information to do so.

In the US 87 percent of online shoppers say they are spending extra time to look for discount codes and 67 percent of people have taken some action to receive a discount. Of these deal seekers, 57 percent signed up for a mailing list, 39 percent answered a survey and 30 percent liked a post or posted on social media. Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of people were willing to give personal information including their email (91 percent), phone number (52 percent) or home address (35 percent).

"Shopping for deals isn't a bad idea, but sharing your information can be incredibly dangerous as anything personal can be tied back to you and may end up in the wrong hands," says Iskander Sanchez-Rola, director of innovation for Norton. "This could happen in a few ways -- perhaps the company you give your personal information to operates legitimately but lacks the technical structure and security to protect your data. This makes these companies more susceptible to breaches, which could mean your data will end up on the dark web. In fact, there have been over 200 data breaches involving UK companies in 2024 alone. On the other hand, criminals may be advertising these discounts to lure in consumers in order to sell their personal information to the highest bidder."

It's no coincidence that while shoppers are keen for discounts, malvertising and adware are the cyber threats that increase the most dramatically during the holiday season. During last year's holiday shopping season, Gen data reveals a 53 percent increase in malvertising attacks -- malicious ads often seen by consumers when searching for something such as sales. Adware -- malicious software often distributed via malvertising -- increased by 227 percent over the same period.

You can find out more on the Norton blog.

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