• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 8, 2020

Millennials and Generation Z may not be skeptics when it comes to technology, but amidst high-profile data breaches and mounting scrutiny over how companies like Facebook and Google collect data, here’s some insight into what they’re thinking and how they feel.

To better understand how COVID-19 and other challenges have shaped the opinions of millennial and Gen Z perceptions of online privacy and their data, privacy search engine Privado launched a survey, polling more than 500 consumers across the United States, ages 18 to 39.

Some 46% said they don’t use privacy protection when browsing the web, while 42% said they only use incognito mode and 84% said they would consider switching to a search engine that offers privacy.

More than 60% of adults under 40 spend more than four hours online daily on a search engine.

Some 55% said they use it to shop, while 48% use it for entertainment, 41% said they read news and sports, 37% cite work-related things, 33% search for travel-related information, 16% use it for financial reasons, and 15% use it for online dating.

Only 4% said they don’t care whether their searches are private. Some 68% said their searches are not private.

When asked “who is monitoring your searches,” 88% said search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Some 67% cite social media sites like Facebook, while 39% cite advertisers, 39% cite publishers, and only 3% said no one is watching.

Millennials and Gen Zers are more concerned with privacy and are taking more responsibility to protect it. Some 73% said that they bear some personal responsibility for protecting their online search privacy.

Removing ads, at 55%, was cited as the main reason that people want a private search engine.