Majority of US consumers are anxious about personal security

According to a research conducted by MasterCard, this fear runs so deep that consumers are less concerned about having their e-mail hacked (62%) or their home robbed (59%), but perhaps most shocking is that 55% would rather have naked pictures of themselves leaked online than have their financial information stolen.

Findings unveil that 92% of Americans feel they take precautions to protect their financial information, yet roughly half (46%) rarely or never change passwords for online financial accounts. 44% use the same password for multiple online accounts, and more than a third (39%) have checked their financial data online on public networks.

With the US liability shift less than three months away, Americans want to feel empowered with new payment options, and a majority of consumers (69%) use chip cards or plan to use them soon. In addition, more than half (56%) currently use mobile digital payments via an app or website or plan to try it soon.

About half (48%) of consumers believe they are most responsible for protecting their own financial information from being stolen or comprised. A majority (83%) of consumers are excited about new secure technologies helping protect their financial information and 77% feel there are more secure ways to pay than ever before. Most people (88%) also trust that their payment network is arming them with secure technologies to protect them from fraud, and a majority (77%) feel that new technologies in the payment sector are having an overall positive impact on personal security.

The study also shows that three-quarters of Americans have heard of biometric payments and a majority (82%) have heard of contactless or tap-and-go payments.

Millennial Americans (45%) are least likely to believe that the risk of their financial information being stolen or compromised is going to increase by 2018, compared to 58% of Gen-Xers and 61% of Baby Boomers.