Two in three Japanese pay for security software
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I would recommend free security software to most people, but the tone of this recent survey conducted by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into free security software seems very much to be taking a sceptical view of free.
Demographics
Between the 27th of February and the 2nd of March 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older.
My misgivings about paid-for security software is that they tend to get bloated as time goes on, providing far more features than the average person really needs in an attempt to justify their need for subscription fees. My personal free security recommendations are Avast anti-virus and Spybot Search and Destroy spyware removal, useful if you have a family member who downloads toolbars and desktop widgets of dubious origins.
Research results
From the sample of 300, 290 actually had home computers. They were asked the following question.
Q1: Do you use security software on your home computer? (Sample size=290)
Yes (to SQ1) 83.4% No 12.1% Don’t know 4.5% Q1SQ1: What kind of software is the security software that you use? (Sample size=242)
Shop-bought software 27.3% Downloaded paid-for software 38.4% Mail-order paid-for software 2.1% Free software (to SQ2, SQ3) 21.5% Don’t know 8.7% Other 2.1% This Q1SQ1 obviously doesn’t cover the case where more than one package is used.
Q1SQ2: Do you think free security software’s security is good enough? (Sample size=52)
Stronger than paid software 0.0% Good enough 51.9% Can’t say 34.6% Worry a bit about free software 13.5% Q1SQ3: Will you use paid-for security software in the future? (Sample size=52)
Investigating buying 5.8% Plan to use it sometime in the future 13.5% Not planning on using it 78.8% Other 1.9%
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