81% of Americans say the potential risks of companies collecting data about them outweigh the benefits, according to Pew Research Center's 2019 survey of 4,272 U.S. adults, still the most recent survey to ask that exact question of a nationally representative sample. That is not a fringe opinion: it is a supermajority position that has held up or hardened on nearly every related measure Pew has re-tested since.
Caring about privacy and acting on it are two different questions, though, and the gap between them is where most of the interesting data sits. Below is what recent survey research says about how many people are concerned, how that concern has moved since 2019, who trusts whom with personal data, and which age groups actually change their behavior because of it.
How many Americans say privacy risks outweigh the benefits?
81% of U.S. adults say the potential risks of companies collecting data about them outweigh the benefits they get in return, and 66% say the same about government data collection, according to Pew Research Center's November 2019 report, "Americans and Privacy." The 15-point gap between those two figures shows that distrust of corporate data practices runs even deeper than distrust of government data practices, a pattern that has continued to show up in every wave of privacy research since.
Pew has not repeated that exact risk-versus-benefit question in a full national survey since 2019, so treat 81% as the most recent direct measurement rather than a live tracker. The firm's October 2023 follow-up survey did re-test adjacent questions and found concern has stayed high or increased on nearly every one it repeated, including a jump in worry about government data use covered in the next section. If your site collects any personal data at all, a clear, current privacy policy is one of the few concrete signals you can give a visitor who already assumes the worst about how that data gets used.
How has privacy concern changed since 2019?
Concern about government data use climbed from 64% of U.S. adults in 2019 to 71% in 2023, according to Pew Research Center's two survey waves. That is a meaningful five-year increase in a country where views on most political topics are closely split, and it moved in the same direction for both major parties, though Republicans accounted for most of the shift.
Figure 1: Concern about government data use rose over four years rather than fading. Source: Pew Research Center, "How Americans View Data Privacy" (October 2023), compared with Pew's 2019 survey wave.
Republican concern about government data use rose from 63% to 77% over the same period, while Democratic concern held roughly steady at an already-high level, according to Pew's breakdown of the 2023 results. Concern about company data practices did not fall either: Pew's 2023 survey found 73% of adults still feel they have little to no control over what companies do with data collected about them, only modestly better than the 81% who said the same in 2019.
Do people trust themselves or anyone else to protect their data?
Most people trust their own judgment more than they trust anyone watching over their data, and both numbers are lower than you might expect. 78% of U.S. adults say they trust themselves to make the right decisions about protecting their personal information, but a majority, 61%, are skeptical that anything they personally do will make much of a difference, according to Pew Research Center's 2023 survey.
Figure 2: A near-40-point gap separates confidence in personal judgment from belief that it changes anything. Source: Pew Research Center, "How Americans View Data Privacy" (October 2023).
Trust in outside parties is thinner still. Only about 20% of Americans are confident companies will use their personal data responsibly, and 77% say social media company executives have little to no accountability when they mishandle user data, per the same 2023 survey. That combination, high self-trust paired with low confidence that it changes an outcome controlled by someone else, helps explain why stated privacy concern rarely converts one-for-one into visible behavior change.
How worried are people about children's online privacy?
Concern about children's data is the highest-scoring privacy worry Pew Research Center has measured. 89% of U.S. adults say they are concerned about social media companies knowing personal information about children, according to the firm's 2023 survey, a rate roughly 18 points higher than adults' concern about their own government's data use.
Figure 3: Concern about children's data collection is near-universal across the political spectrum. Source: Pew Research Center, "How Americans View Data Privacy" (October 2023).
That near-consensus number does not split cleanly along the same lines as most privacy questions. Parents and non-parents report similar concern levels in Pew's data, which suggests the worry is less about personal exposure and more about a general belief that platforms should not be collecting data on minors in the first place, regardless of whether the respondent has a child using those platforms.
Does privacy concern turn into real action?
Sometimes, and the pattern is strongly generational rather than tied to how much a person says they care. 49% of consumers aged 25 to 34 have switched companies or providers because of data practices, compared to just 18% of those 75 and older, according to Cisco's 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey of consumers across 12 countries. Younger respondents are also more likely to exercise a formal right: 46% have submitted a request to access, correct, or delete their personal data, versus 16% of those 65 and older.
Figure 4: Stated concern is broad, but the age group most likely to act on it is younger consumers. Source: Cisco 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey.
This is where the topic connected to what percentage of people actually read privacy policies before agreeing to them: caring about privacy in the abstract and reading the document that governs it are separate behaviors, and the second one lags the first for every age group Pew and Cisco have measured. More than 75% of consumers surveyed by Cisco, across every age bracket, say they will not buy from an organization they do not trust with their data, which means concern still shapes purchase decisions even when it does not show up as policy-reading.
What does the timeline of rising privacy concern look like?
Privacy concern has not moved in a straight line, but every major milestone since 2019 points the same direction: more worry, not less, plus a growing expectation that regulation and enforcement should catch up.
Figure 5: How the consumer privacy concern conversation moved from a single risk-versus-benefit number toward generational and AI-driven concern. Source: Pew Research Center (2019, 2023), KPMG Corporate Data Responsibility survey (2021), Cisco Consumer Privacy Survey (2024), Cisco Data Privacy Benchmark Study (2025).
How does stated concern compare across the major surveys?
The 81% figure is the highest number in this dataset because it asks the broadest possible question, whether risk outweighs benefit at all. Narrower questions about specific actors or specific data types return lower, but still substantial, concern levels.
| Metric | Value | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Say company data-collection risks outweigh the benefits | 81% | Pew Research Center | 2019 |
| Concerned about government data use | 71% | Pew Research Center | 2023 |
| Concerned about social media knowing children's data | 89% | Pew Research Center | 2023 |
| Confident companies will use data responsibly | 20% | Pew Research Center | 2023 |
| Trust themselves to protect their own data | 78% | Pew Research Center | 2023 |
| Switched providers over data practices, ages 25-34 | 49% | Cisco Consumer Privacy Survey | 2024 |
For more of the broader dataset behind these figures, see Data Privacy Statistics 2026, which tracks the wider set of consumer, regulatory, and enforcement numbers this post draws its comparisons from.
The Bottom Line
By the broadest measure available, 81% of Americans say the risks of company data collection outweigh what they get in return, and every narrower question Pew and Cisco have asked since points in the same worried direction rather than a calmer one. What has not kept pace is confidence that anyone, including the respondent themselves, can do much about it: only 20% trust companies to act responsibly, and 61% doubt their own actions change the outcome. For a business, that combination is an opportunity rather than just a liability. A privacy policy that is accurate, current, and written in plain language is one of the few things a visitor who already expects the worst can actually check, and doing that well is cheap relative to the trust it can recover.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people care about online privacy? 81% of Americans say the potential risks of companies collecting data about them outweigh the benefits, according to Pew Research Center's 2019 survey of 4,272 U.S. adults, still the most recent survey to ask that exact question. Concern has not eased since: a 2023 Pew follow-up found government data-use concern rose from 64% to 71% over the same period.
What percentage of people are concerned about how companies use their data? At least three in four U.S. adults describe themselves as at least somewhat concerned about company data practices, and 81% say collection risks outweigh the benefits, per Pew Research Center. Only about 20% are confident companies will use personal data responsibly.
Are younger or older people more concerned about privacy? Younger consumers are more likely to act on privacy concern, not necessarily feel it more. 49% of consumers aged 25 to 34 have switched companies over data practices, compared to 18% of those 75 and older, according to Cisco's 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey.
How worried are people about children's online privacy specifically? About nine in ten Americans, 89%, say they are concerned about social media companies knowing personal information about children, according to Pew Research Center's 2023 survey, making it one of the highest-scoring concerns the firm has measured.
Where the Numbers Come From
- Pew Research Center. (2019). "Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information." Survey of 4,272 U.S. adults conducted June 3-17, 2019. Source of the 81% risk-outweighs-benefit and 66% government-risk figures.
- Pew Research Center. (2023). "How Americans View Data Privacy." Survey of 5,101 U.S. adults conducted May 15-21, 2023, published October 18, 2023. Source of the 71% government-concern, 78% self-trust, 39% perceived-efficacy, and 20% company-trust figures.
- Pew Research Center. (2023). "Key findings about Americans and data privacy." Companion short-read from the same May 2023 survey wave. Source of the 89% children's-data-concern figure.
- Cisco. (2024). "Cisco 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey." Global consumer survey covering 12 countries; Cisco does not publish an exact overall sample size for this wave beyond describing it as covering thousands of respondents. Source of the 49% vs 18% switching and 46% vs 16% data-request figures.
Note: All figures verified as of August 2026. Pew Research Center's 2019 survey remains the most recent to ask the exact risk-versus-benefit question behind this post's headline figure; its 2023 follow-up re-tested adjacent questions and found concern unchanged or higher on every one it repeated. This post will be refreshed when either organization publishes a newer wave that revisits the original question.
