Study: APAC consumers want security and convenience

When interacting and transacting with brands online, Asia Pacific (APAC) consumers want both private data protection and an easy, seamless experience. This is according to Okta’s Customer Identity Trends Survey 2023.

Done in partnership with Statista, Okta’s Customer Identity Trends Survey 2023 polled more than 20,000 consumers across 14 countries in APAC, North America, and Europe. In APAC, Japan, South Korea, and Australia were covered, with 233 percent of the respondents coming from the region. The study looked at attitudes towards convenience, security, and privacy, and considered the implication for brands.

Privacy matters

Based on the research’s findings, APAC consumers are becoming more concerned about privacy and more protective of their personal data. Most of the participants (55%) in APAC understand that their online activities leave a digital footprint. Among the consumers in this group, 40% are taking steps to reduce that footprint’s size.

As much as 77% of survey participants in the region said that it was important to them to have control over their data (such as being able to change privacy settings or limit information-sharing).

The good thing for APAC consumers is that most of them (60%) are aware of their own security practices, and about a third of those consumers are actively taking steps to protect their own data. Their strategies include:

• Using strong passwords (cited by 45% of the respondents who are taking steps to protect their own data)
• Restricting the amount of data they share (cited by 40%)
• Using different passwords for all of their accounts (cited by 38%)
• Deleting cookies regularly (cited by 35%)
• Regularly reviewing/changing privacy settings (cited by 28%)

Such awareness and steps to protect one’s security and privacy are important, given the surge in the number of accounts that people need to manage online. Having large numbers of digital accounts, especially inactive ones, increases cybersecurity risk. If a hackers is able to compromise one of these accounts, they may gain access to personal data without being detected for a long time.

In APAC, the median number of active digital accounts held by each consumer is between 10 and 20. About 73% of consumers have 10 or more active online accounts.

Ease of use also a top priority

Despite APAC consumers’ awareness of privacy and security, however, they don’t want these concerns to get in the way of a personalized, user-friendly and frictionless experience when interacting with brands.

For example, 544% of APAC survey respondents said that they are more likely to spend money when offered a simple, secure, and frictionless login experience. This is regardless of whether they are accessing apps and services, or making purchases.

On the flip side, a poor online experience can have lasting repercussions on consumers’ perception of brands. Use of passwords is still widespread among APAC organizations. However, the survey found significant levels of frustration associated with this authentication mechanism.

Ben Goodman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Okta Asia Pacific and Japan, advised organizations to replace their traditional username-and-password login systems with these newer authentication mechanisms.