Security

Smartphone users keener to give away their privacy

A recent survey from goo Research into mobile phone location services, ie, these functions like foursquare, Google Latitude, and Facebook location was reported on (and sponsored by?) by AdverTimes.

Demographics

Sadly, to find out the full demographics I suspect one has to buy their paper magazine Senden Kaigi, which in their 15th May 2012 edition featured an article entitled “Consumer Psychology in the SNS-facilitated mutual surveillance society”, of which this report is a digest. In Q1, the 2008 survey was carried out in December of that year with 2,077 respondents, and this year’s survey was in April with 2,214 respondents, all from the usual goo Research online monitor panel.

I’m reluctant to check in when out and about in town – I’ve only attached location information to photos when I’ve been passing through commuting home; there was an interesting article a while ago about someone in Tokyo who used that sort of public information plus Twitter to find two people in real time through their mobile presence.

I wonder what the reasons are for smartphone users being more likely to reveal information – is it that smartphone apps make it easy and fun to do, or is it that the people who want to reveal information tend to use smartphones? Perhaps if one buys the magazine one can find out!
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Majority reveal no personal information online

How many paid-for apps have you downloaded? graph of japanese statisticsHere’s another very interesting smartphone survey, this time looking at smartphones and privacy awareness, and conducted by goo Research.

Demographics

Over the 30th and 31st of May 2011 1,573 smartphone owning members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample had an iPhone, 47.6% an Android-based phone; 1.0% had had their smartphone for less than a month, 12.5% between one and three months, 28.3% between three and six months, 25.3% six months to a year, 22.8% for one or two years, and 10.1% more than two years. 71.9% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their twenties, 34.6% in their thirties, 29.9% in their forties, 14.9% in their fifties, and 3.9% aged sixty or older.

I’m really surprised about the very low disclosure rate of who one works for, but it does very much ring true with what people who were sceptical of whether LinkedIn could make it in Japan said.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Computer security software in Japan

Do you think your security measures are bulletproof? graph of japanese statisticsA recently-reported, but not recently-conducted survey conducted by DIMSDRIVE Research looked at computer security.

Demographics

Between the 16th of September and the 7th of November 2010 7,937 members of the DIMSDRIVE penetration test and monitor group with a home computer completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 0.7% in their teens, 11.2% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, 33.1% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 7.7% aged sixty or older.

My main security software is Microsoft Security Essentials, which does the business. On my desktop PC running Vista, the daily updates then scans really bog the machine down for 30 minutes, despite setting it to only use 30% or less of the system resources. I used to run Avast!, again free, but it prompts once a year for a free license update, but last year I just couldn’t get the message to go away. It’s quite sad that most people get stuck with commercial packages that they don’t really rate very highly just because it comes bundled on the computer.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

One in three Japanese smartphones have anti-virus

What kind of security solution do you have on your smartphone? graph of japanese statisticsWith viruses – well, more often Trojans – spreading to smartphones, in particular to Android devices, this recent survey from goo Research looked at smartphone security, with japan.internet.com reporting in particular on anti-virus software installation.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of July 2011 1,082 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.1% in their forties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

Android security is a very interesting subject; given the security model, I think even for an experienced user a security solution is necessary. Anti-virus is the default choice for people coming from the PC world, but on the limited resources of a mobile phone there has to be a better way! Some of the more interesting solutions are those offered by Mocana, the secure firmware implementation called WishperCore, TOMOYO Linux, and Kirin and TraintDroid, to name but a few.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Mineral water for infants after the earthquake: part 2 of 2

Do you know which is the appropriate water for formula milk? graph of japanese statisticsSince the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdown, one of the problems occuring has been the worries about radioactive particles in the tap water (I’d argue that the worries exceed the actual danger), so it was interesting to see this survey from iShare into drinking water for infants.

Demographics

On the 13th of June 2011 576 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 63.9% of the sample were female, 11.8% in their twenties, 80.6% in their thirties, and 7.6% in their forties. All of the sample lived in Tokyo prefecture and had bought mineral water for infants.

The one or two times I’ve been in Tokyo, however, I don’t think I’ve actually drunk the water, so I cannot say how nice or otherwise it is.

In Q7SQ, I never knew there was a recommended water for formula milk! Soft water is apparently the correct answer, and most of the water in Japan is soft. Q10 and Q10SQ shows just over three in four women with infants worry about Fukushima fallout in their water – do is that a larger or smaller percentage than you would imagine?

75% of Tokyo women with infants worrying about radioactive water is...

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By Ken Y-N, ago

Mineral water for infants after the earthquake: part 1 of 2

Since the earthquake, have you stocked up mineral water? graph of japanese statisticsSince the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdown, one of the problems occuring has been the worries about radioactive particles in the tap water (I’d argue that the worries exceed the actual danger), so it was interesting to see this survey from iShare into drinking water for infants.

Demographics

On the 13th of June 2011 576 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 63.9% of the sample were female, 11.8% in their twenties, 80.6% in their thirties, and 7.6% in their forties. All of the sample lived in Tokyo prefecture and had bought mineral water for infants.

For Q2, people were asked why they had stocked up on water since the earthquake, some of the more common answers were that they wanted to have a supply if the tap water became contaminated, they don’t want their children to drink tap water, they stocked up just in case, and domestic water is safer than imported brands. That final option does seem a bit odd to me.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Date of birth favourite email password in Japan

How many email accounts do you often use? graph of japanese statisticsWith news of LulzSec and other hackers making off with passwords, and other attacks based around people’s GMail accounts, this recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into email passwords is rather timely. Note that I have previously translated an older survey into passwords.

Demographics

Over the 31st of May and the 1st of June 2011 1,077 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 17.0% in their teens, 17.7% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 16.1% in their fifties, and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

I have absolutely no idea what my email passwords are! My Gmail ones are 20 characters long and randomly generated and managed by KeePass (fiddly to get the hang of, but this is a good tutorial) and my ISP one is the one they supplied, a 10 character mixed case alphanumeric one. My wife, without any training from me, keeps her in text files and uses a different one for each site, at least 8 characters long and a mix of usually names and semi-random numbers. Not the best of security, but at least she varies on every site, which in practise might actually provide more overall security than one big long one used everywhere.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Most Japanese paying for virus software

Is your currently-installed anti-virus software paid for or free? graph of japanese statisticsGiven that Microsoft started last year giving away the rather useful Microsoft Security Essentials and that this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into anti-virus software found that price was the biggest factor when choosing a package, one would have thought that the percentage of paid software users would have been lower.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 11th of January 2011 1,081 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the survey were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

One key reason for the high rate of paid software is, I suspect, heavy television advertising by at least two or three vendors raising awareness of the need to buy amongst users. However, I would admit that it is also possible that it is the high rate of payers that spurs the advertising market rather than the other way around.

As mentioned above, I now use Microsoft Security Essentials which does everything I need. I used to use Avast!, but it started nagging me in the autumn to upgrade to the paid version but didn’t seem to have any obvious way to turn off the warnings.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Pseudo-anonymous New Year nengajo postcards through mixi

Do you know what 'mixi nengajo' is? graph of japanese statisticsJust in time for the New Year nengajo postcard season, goo Research performed a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, into that subject, with the report focusing on a service from mixi, Japan’s largest SNS, that allows people to send physical postcards to virtual friends, while maintaining the pseudo-anonymity of people’s online handles.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of December 2010 1,098 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.8% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

Since Facebook doesn’t offer such a service for Christmas cards (as far as I know), I can conclude that either such a degree of privacy is of no great concern to the average Facebook user or that the average user has no urge to send cards to their Facebook friends. Perhaps it might be more of the second, as surveys have found that Japanese have a significantly lower number of social network friends, indicating that they are more discerning about who they befriend.

Q3 is a quite surprising result from my point of view; note that the question refers to disclosing your address to mixi only, not to your contacts on the SNS, yet 70% don’t feel too happy about doing so.
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By Ken Y-N, ago