世論 What Japan Thinks

Recently DIMSDRIVE Research took a look at shredders and personal information.

Demographics

Between the 22nd of July and the 6th of August 2009 9,590 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 1.1% in their teens, 11.9% in their twenties, 32.2% in their thirties, 31.5% in their forties, 16.5% in their fifties, and 6.8% aged sixty or older.

In Q1, just in case you are wondering what a personal information-hiding stamp is, well, I can sell you one of these. It’s a stamp that overprints data with a tight pattern in order to obscure the original text which I thought was just a novelty, but 6.4% of the sample use one.

I myself have an electric shredder that we bought mail-order for about 10,000 yen a few years ago. It’s a quite large home office size, but it works well, although it does clog up if you put plastic wrappers through…

Research results

Q1: At home, how do you currently dispose of mail, documents with your name, address, etc on them? (Sample size=9,590, multiple answer)

Cut with scissors, rip with hands into small pieces	50.3%
Use an electric shredder	20.8%
Use a hand-powered shredder	13.2%
Black out with a marker pen, etc	6.9%
Use a personal information-hiding stamp	6.4%
Use a scissors-type shredder	5.3%
Other	3.1%
Just throw stuff away as it is	20.4%
Don’t know	1.1%

Q2: When throwing out rubbish, to what degree are you concerned about personal information leakage? (Sample size=9,590)

	All	Male N=4,806	Female N=4,784
Concerned	29.1%	26.6%	31.6%
A little concerned	45.6%	43.5%	47.8%
Not really concerned	20.1%	22.8%	17.3%
Not at all concerned	5.2%	7.1%	3.3%

Those in their teens and twenties were less worried than the older demographic.

By disposal method in Q1, for most methods over 90% were concerned to some degree. The exceptions were 83.1% of those using scissors or hands, 77.1% who employed other disposal methods, and just 35.3% of those who just threw everything away as is.

This question was posed to the users of electric shredders and hand-powered shredders from Q1.

Q3: What kinds of of things do you usually shred? (Sample size=1,998 and 1,265, multiple answer)

	Electric shredders N=1,998	Hand-powered shredders N=1,265
Credit card statements	83.4%	74.5%
Postcards, direct mail	82.0%	75.6%
Utility statements	76.1%	68.9%
Bank correspondence	75.6%	65.2%
Insurance correspondence	66.3%	54.6%
Home delivery receipt	61.9%	55.3%
Envelopes	60.9%	50.9%
Bankbooks	32.3%	24.0%
Cards	28.5%	32.0%
Receipts	27.3%	21.3%
CD, DVD	16.5%	17.3%
Media cards (SD, Memory Stick, etc)	10.5%	10.8%
Floppy disks	10.4%	10.1%
Other	8.5%	6.2%

This question was posed to the users of electric shredders, hand-powered shredders, and scissors-type shredders from Q1.

Q4: Why do you use a shredder at home? (Sample size=3,435, multiple answer)

Personal information data leaks are scary	79.6%
Too much bother to cut up with scissors, by hand	40.7%
Not sufficient to just cut up with scissors, by hand	30.7%
Don’t want people to see stuff other than personal information	25.7%
Get a lot of mail	19.7%
Lot of plastic wrappers, etc, that are difficult to cut with scissors	13.6%
Important to shred credit cards, CDs, etc	11.1%
Often need to dispose of work-related documents at home	10.5%
Bought it for a family member	7.5%
Don’t want family to see stuff	3.8%
Had a bad experience regarding a personal information leak	3.8%
Other	1.4%
Didn’t buy it myself, don’t know	2.6%

The next three questions were posed to the users of electric shredders from Q1.

Q5: How much did your main electric shredder cost? (Sample size=1,998)

Under 3,000 yen	14.9%
3,000 to 5,999 yen	31.8%
6,000 to 8,999 yen	12.4%
9,000 to 11,999 yen	10.6%
12,000 to 17,999 yen	4.4%
18,000 to 20,999 yen	1.3%
21,000 yen or more	2.1%
Didn’t buy it myself, don’t remember	22.5%

Q6: Where did you buy your main electric shredder? (Sample size=1,998)

Electrical superstore	34.3%
Home centre	18.2%
Internet mail order, auction	14.4%
Supermarket	5.2%
Discount store	4.7%
Intererior shop, stationery shop	1.9%
Loft, Tokyu Hands, etc	0.7%
Local electrical shop	0.5%
Department store	0.5%
“Variety shop” (Sony Plaza, etc)	0.1%
Other	2.3%
Didn’t buy it myself, don’t remember	17.2%

Q7: What are you dissatisfied with regarding your main electric shredder? (Sample size=1,998, multiple answer)

Noisy	48.9%
Can only shred a few sheets at a time	35.6%
Often gets blocked	29.6%
Shredded paper bag capacity is small	28.0%
Heavy	24.1%
Can’t shred anything other than paper (CDs, credit cards, etc)	22.3%
Cannot do fine shredding	19.5%
Overall size is large	16.1%
Scraps of shredded paper get scattered around	10.9%
Can only shred small paper sizes	9.5%
Unsafe design	3.1%
Other	3.4%
Nothing in particular	10.5%

As one might expect, the cheaper the price the more the complaints in almost every aspect, except for size and weight, where it was the more expensive that had more complaints.

Q8: Have you ever felt any electric shredder you have used has been dangerous? (Sample size=7,027, those who have used any electric shredder)

Yes	16.1%
No	83.9%

The most common dangers have been ties and scarves getting or nearly getting caught, then shredded or nearly shredded fingers, then clothes, hair, and children’s fingers.

Q9: Do you use different passwords to log into different web sites? (Sample size=9,590)

Different password for all, almost all sites	9.9%
Different password for some sites, same for others	58.7%
Same password for all, almost all sites	22.1%
Don’t log into sites other than DIMSDRIVE	0.4%
Don’t want to answer	8.9%

The more worried people were about personal information leaks from Q2, the more likely they were to use different passwords.