• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 4, 2025

Email addresses are the personal detail most likely to be leaked, judging by a study from NordVPN.  

Of all Americans, 61% have had their email address breached, versus 56% of New York City residents. Overall, 52% have suffered a phone number breach, as have 46% in New York.  

Home address leaks have been experienced by 49% throughout the country and by 38% in New York. 

Password leaks have hit 34% of both Americans in general and New Yorkers. And 30% of Americans have had their Social Security numbers revealed, as have 23% in New York.  

Of Americans polled, 48% overall have found about data leaks. Drilling down, 43% have been informed of them by an official party, and 21% have discovered data leaks themselves. 

At the same time, 66% of Americans and and 61% of New Yorkers believe their personal data could be for sale online. 

What do bad actors do with this data? They seek to:

• Steal the victim’s identity
• Steal money from the victim’s bank account
• Sell it to other criminals
• Impersonate the victim online

New York City residents are particularly likely to have this information sold on the dark web: 

• Personally identifiable information 
• Photos and scans of ID cards
• Powers and scans of passport photos and scans of driver’s licenses 
• Credit card scans 
• Bank routing and account numbers
• Social security numbers 
• Credit card numbers 

Meanwhile, antivirus software is the most popular protection choice, with 52% of Americans and New Yorkers using it on their personal devices.  

But 73% of Americans and 77% of New Yorkers wrongly believe antivirus software can do more than just detect viruses on their devices. 

NordVPN surveyed 1,005 U.S. residents and 811 from New York City from September 2 to September 10, 2025.