The Australian Communications and Media Authority today released a report that explores changing community attitudes and practices in dealing with their personal information online.

Attitudes Towards Use of Personal Information Online was commissioned principally to help inform the ACMA’s development of education materials to assist people to protect their personal information on the internet, with a focus on adults. Recognising that the research may be of broader interest, the ACMA is making the report available on its website.

‘Encouragingly, the report has found that awareness of the potential risks of providing personal information online was high among adults, and they want to protect themselves,’ said Chris Cheah, Acting Chair of the ACMA. ‘Most users identified identity theft as the most severe risk associated with disclosing personal information online. Other risks of concern include unwanted communications such as spam, financial loss, fraud, damage to reputation and invasion of privacy.’

However, the report also identified that many of these users often did not know specifically what to do to protect themselves, found technological change difficult to keep up with, and often do not know who to ask for assistance or advice.

‘The ACMA was pleasantly surprised by the report’s findings that people wanted to take responsibility for protecting themselves,’ Mr Cheah said.

‘What we now need to do is find ways of giving people the information they need to do this. The ACMA will be using the report to develop further materials to help users, and ISPs and others involved in educating the public.’

The ACMA already provides a range of resources on its website and has a page dedicated to online risk management.

The resources provide practical information on how to: protect your computer; prevent people from illegally using your computer or internet address without your permission; protect your children online; protect your server from malicious software such as viruses or spyware; and how to report spam.