More Data More Problems

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We live in an era where every webpage, click, scroll and keystroke leaves a digital trail.

Is your blood pressure ticking up? Yeah you may want to proceed this newsletter with caution.

How Americans Feel About Data

In May 2023, Pew Research Center found an uptick in areas like government data collection, private policy, child safety, and just general wariness of our individual digital footprint.

Check out some of the results:

• Republicans (77%) are more concerned than average U.S. adults (70%) or democrats (65%).

• People straight up don’t understand what companies are doing with their data (67%).

• Most people believe that have little to no control over what companies or the governement will do with their data (79%).

• Over 77% of adults don’t trust social media CEOs .

• American parents are very or somewhat concerned (89%) with children’s online policy.

• 7% (yes you read that right) of surveyed adults believe in less regulation behind online privacy.

• 69% of Americans believe private policy statements are just something to get past.

• About 7 in 10 Americans are overwhelmed by the number of passwords to keep track of.

The biggest stat that spooked me?

Over 81% of American adults believe AI will lead to people’s personal information being used in ways they won’t be comfortable with (81%) or that weren’t originally intended (80%).

What do people like you do?

Password Management:

Adults adopt a wide range of strategies for managing their passwords. For 25-49yr olds, about ~30% write their passwords down, ~45% save passwords to their browsers and 23% regularly change their passwords.

Smartphone Security:

We all have that friend or significant other who lives in the wild west and doesn’t put a passcode on their iPhone. That’s at least the case for 2 in 10 U.S. adults who don’t use some sort of security feature (passcode, fingerprint, face recognition, etc.).

Hacks & Fraud Activity:

About 1 in 4 U.S. adults have identified fraudulent charges on their debit or credit card in the last 12 months.

Scarier figure? 34% of surveyed Americans were hacked (email, social media account, etc.), or someone applied for a loan in their name within the past 12 months.

My key takeaway?

Make sure to freeze your credit, put text message alerts on credit card payments in excess of $100, write passwords down (notice I didn’t say Google doc?) or change them annually, ALWAYS opt-into dual authentication, turn off cookies or website tracking, use incognito browsers, block spam callers, and get in touch if you want more tips.

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Question: What’s private banking?

Emily via TikTok

Private wealth advising and private banking are basically the same thing. It’s invite only, available to high net worth ($5M+) or ultra-high net worth ($25M+) families. Why? They recquire a higher level of expertise and service.

Long story short, it began when banks found themselves only helping the business, but began to notice that the families who owned them also needed their own personal financial advice/products.

For everyday people, a local bank branch or financial advisor can likely cover everything you need.

Jack Boudreau

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Thanks for reading, Habits fam. See you back here next week for more.

-JB

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