Christian Fredrikson,
CEO & President,
F-Secure Corporation

Someone is always watching. This seems to be the bitter truth after data privacy issues have been spotlighted in the recent weeks. But even before hearing about PRISM, consumers were concerned about the security and privacy of content they store in the cloud. A recent survey for which we asked GfK to interview 6,000 people in 15 countries in April shows that six out of ten consumers were concerned about the security of storing their content in social networking and cloud storage services. According to the survey, the top five providers people upload their content to are Facebook, YouTube, Google Drive, Dropbox, and tying for fifth place are Microsoft SkyDrive and Apple iCloud. 59% of consumers expressed concern that someone else may be able to access content they store with these providers and now we know they were right.

Privacy and security are priceless values in a world where users are always threatened by content losses or breaches of confidential information. So how to escape the ever-watchful eye of governments? The long-term solution can be building a European dotcom industry, and we are happy to be on the forefront of it. Already now users can choose services from European companies to e.g. safely store their personal data in the cloud without having Big Brother watching. Obviously, this industry has to be competitive on its own, not by protection. Consumers will not settle for anything less.

In the meantime, if you don’t choose a provider who can reassure to keep your information private and detain others from tracking you, encrypted connections are a good starting point to keep you away from the casual prying eyes.

Enjoy your time on the web – safely. We are serious about privacy and security and encourage you to be, too!

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