![67% of Users Adjusted Their Privacy Settings [2026 Data]](/_astro/how-many-users-adjust-their-privacy-settings.UrhGOoaN_ZduVtY.webp)
67% of consumers reviewed or updated their privacy settings in apps or platforms during the past 12 months, according to Cisco's 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey, a poll of 2,600 adults across 12 countries published October 30, 2024. A narrower question tells a much lower story: Norton's 2023 Cyber Safety Insights Report puts the share of adults who changed default privacy settings on a device at just 28% globally.
Both numbers are accurate. They measure different actions, over different time windows, across different populations, which is exactly why a single "X% of users adjust their privacy settings" headline keeps getting cited two different ways. Below is what each survey actually asked, what people report doing most often, and who is most likely to be the one doing it.
How many people have reviewed or updated their privacy settings?
Cisco's 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey found that 67% of consumers reviewed or updated their privacy settings in apps or platforms at least once in the prior 12 months. That places settings management just behind the survey's most common security action and ahead of using a password manager, in a study covering Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the UK, and the US.
Figure 1: Reviewing or updating privacy settings sits close behind enabling multi-factor authentication as consumers' most common privacy action. Source: Cisco 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey, 2,600 adults, 12 countries.
The 67% figure sits alongside a rise in general privacy awareness that Cisco has tracked since 2019. 53% of consumers now say they are aware of their country's privacy laws, up from 36% in 2019, a 17-percentage-point increase. Consumers who are aware of the laws are also more confident in how their data is handled: 81% of aware consumers say their data is protected, against 44% among those who are not aware. A settings review looks less like an isolated habit and more like one part of a wider pattern of consumers paying closer attention to their own data.
Why do privacy settings survey numbers vary so much?
67% and 28% both come from credible, named surveys fielded within roughly a year of each other, and both are defensible once the question wording is laid side by side.
| Survey | What it measured | Result | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cisco 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey | Reviewed or updated privacy settings in apps or platforms, past 12 months | 67% | 2,600 adults, 12 countries |
| Norton/Gen 2023 Cyber Safety Insights Report | Changed default privacy settings on a device, no fixed time window | 28% | 8,022 adults, 8 countries |
Cisco's question is broad (any app or platform setting) and time-bound (the past year only). Norton's question is narrower (device default settings specifically) and open-ended (any time, ever). A consumer who toggled an app's ad-tracking permission last month would count toward Cisco's 67% but might answer "no" to Norton's more specific device-settings question if they never touched their phone's own privacy menu. Treat the two figures as answers to two different questions rather than competing measurements of the same behavior.
Figure 2: Cisco's question sits in the broadest, most recent quadrant; Norton's sits in the narrowest, most open-ended one. That gap in scope explains most of the 39-point difference. Source: Cisco 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey; 2023 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report.
If your own privacy policy or consent flow gets cited by name in coverage of either number, data privacy statistics 2026 rounds up the wider set of consumer-behavior figures both of these surveys sit inside.
What privacy actions do people take most often?
Norton's 2023 Cyber Safety Insights Report asked adults which specific steps they had taken to protect their online privacy, without a time limit attached, and let respondents select every action that applied. Changing default privacy settings ranked second among named actions, just behind enabling multi-factor authentication.
Figure 3: Changing default privacy settings is the second most common privacy action Norton measured, ahead of using a VPN or deleting a social media account. Source: 2023 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report Global Results, 8,022 adults, 8 countries.
Only 9% of adults said they had asked a company to see what personal information it holds about them, a direct data-access request, the least common action on Norton's list besides an open-ended "other" category at 4%. That gap between adjusting a setting and formally requesting one's own data says something about friction: changing a toggle inside an app takes seconds, while a data-access request usually means finding a company's privacy contact, submitting a formal request, and waiting for a response.
How many people take no privacy action at all?
70% of adults globally report taking at least one of the steps Norton measured, and every country in the survey except Japan had a majority reporting at least one action. That still leaves 30% of adults worldwide who say they have not done anything to protect their online privacy.
Figure 4: Most adults report taking some privacy action, but three in ten say they have not done anything at all. Source: 2023 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report Global Results.
Feeling concerned about privacy and acting on it are not the same thing. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's 2023 Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey, based on 1,916 Australian adults, found that only 32% feel in control of their personal data privacy, even though 90% understand why they should protect their information. The action gap Norton measured globally, 70% doing something versus 30% doing nothing, sits on top of a much larger gap in how in control people actually feel.
Who is most likely to adjust their privacy settings?
Age is the clearest divider Cisco's 2024 survey found, though it measured this through a related behavior: switching companies over data privacy policies rather than settings changes specifically.
| Age group | Switched companies over data privacy policies (Cisco 2024) |
|---|---|
| 25-34 | 49% |
| 75+ | 18% |
Younger consumers are close to three times more likely than the oldest group to have walked away from a company entirely over its data practices. What Percentage of Consumers Switch Brands Over Privacy? breaks that behavior down further across the full age range Cisco surveyed. The same age pattern likely runs through settings adjustments too, since a generation raised on app permission prompts and cookie banners has had far more repeated exposure to the "review your settings" moment than a generation that came online before most of those prompts existed.
Beyond age, Cisco found that 36% of consumers have gone a step further than adjusting a setting and exercised a formal data subject access request, asking a company directly to access, correct, delete, or transfer their personal data. That is a smaller share than the 67% who touched a settings menu, but a larger and more legally significant action than a single toggle, since a data subject access request usually falls under a specific legal right rather than a feature a product simply offers.
What does this mean for your privacy policy?
A settings menu only works as a privacy control if users can find it and trust that using it does something. That trust starts with disclosure: a current privacy policy that names the specific controls on offer, not just a general promise to "respect your privacy."
Figure 5: Whether a privacy settings menu functions as a real control usually depends on whether the site's own privacy policy discloses it. Source: General GDPR and CCPA disclosure requirements, as summarized across both laws' access and opt-out provisions.
If your site collects personal data and offers any kind of settings, preference center, or opt-out, the fastest way to close the gap between "we have a mechanism" and "users know about it" is a privacy policy that names the specific controls you offer, rather than a generic template paragraph about user rights in the abstract.
The Bottom Line
The honest answer to "how many users adjust their privacy settings" depends entirely on which question you are answering. Ask broadly, about any app or platform setting within the past year, and 67% say yes, per Cisco's 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey. Ask narrowly, about device default settings with no time limit, and 28% say yes, per Norton's 2023 Cyber Safety Insights Report. Both numbers describe real, measured behavior; neither is wrong. What both surveys agree on is the shape of the pattern underneath: roughly seven in ten adults have taken some privacy action, younger consumers act far more often than older ones, and the gap between feeling concerned about privacy and actually changing a setting remains wide. For a site owner, the practical takeaway is that a meaningful share of visitors will look for privacy controls, and a privacy policy that clearly names those controls is what turns that 67% into people who trust your site enough to stay.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of people have adjusted their privacy settings? 67% of consumers reviewed or updated their privacy settings in apps or platforms during the past 12 months, according to Cisco's 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey of 2,600 adults across 12 countries, published October 30, 2024. A narrower measure, changing default privacy settings on a device with no fixed time window, puts the figure at 28% globally, per Norton's 2023 Cyber Safety Insights Report of 8,022 adults in 8 countries.
Why do privacy settings survey numbers vary so much between sources? Cisco's 67% figure asks whether someone reviewed or updated settings in apps or platforms within the past 12 months, a broad question with a bounded time window. Norton's 28% figure asks only about changing default privacy settings on a device, with no time limit attached. Different question wording and a different denominator explain most of the 39-point gap, not a data error.
How many people have taken any privacy protective action at all? 70% of adults globally have taken at least one step to protect their online privacy, per Norton's 2023 Cyber Safety Insights Report, while 30% say they have not done anything. The single most common action was enabling multi-factor authentication at 30%, narrowly ahead of changing default privacy settings at 28%.
Who is most likely to adjust their privacy settings? Younger consumers act far more often than older ones. 49% of 25-34-year-olds have switched companies over data privacy policies, compared with just 18% of those 75 and older, per Cisco's 2024 Consumer Privacy Survey. 36% of all consumers surveyed have exercised a formal data subject access request to view, correct, delete, or transfer their personal data.
Where the Numbers Come From
- Cisco. (2024). "2024 Consumer Privacy Survey." 2,600 adults surveyed across 12 countries (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, UK, US); 67% reviewed or updated privacy settings in apps or platforms in the past 12 months; 68% use multi-factor authentication; 61% use a password manager; 49% of 25-34-year-olds versus 18% of those 75+ switched companies over data policies; 36% exercised a data subject access request; 53% aware of national privacy laws, up from 36% in 2019. Published October 30, 2024.
- Gen Digital (Norton). (2023). "2023 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report, Global Results." Online survey of 8,022 adults (18+) in 8 countries (Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, New Zealand, UK, US), conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Gen, November 29 to December 19, 2022. 70% took at least one step to protect online privacy; 28% changed default privacy settings on devices; 30% enabled multi-factor authentication; 27% used an identity theft protection service; 25% disabled third-party cookies; 30% said they have not done anything. Published February 2023.
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. (2023). "Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey 2023." 1,916 Australian adults surveyed; 32% feel in control of their personal data privacy; 90% understand why they should protect their information. Published 2023.
Note: All figures verified as of July 2026. Cisco's and Norton's questions measure different actions over different time windows, so the 67% and 28% figures should not be quoted as competing measurements of the same behavior. Figures are refreshed at least twice a year to track new survey editions from both organizations.
