The Survey Phone Password

[Eugene Hill]

Thoseunder the age of 50 are especially likely to indicate that their online passwords are very similar to one another: 45% of internet users ages 18 to 49 say this, compared with 32% of those ages 50 and older. And younger adults are especially likely to share their passwords with others: 56% of 18- to 29-year-old internet users have done so.

In addition, 39% of internet users report that they simply find it challenging to keep up with all of the passwords to their various online accounts. This is relatively common among those in their early 30s through mid-60s: 44% of online adults ages 30 to 64 say they have a hard time keeping track of their passwords, compared with 33% of those ages 18 to 29 and 30% of those 65 and older.

An especially large share of smartphone owners ages 65 and older (39%) say their devices do not have a lock screen, but it is not uncommon for younger smartphone owners to skip this security step either. Some 28% of smartphone owners ages 18 to 29, 24% of those ages 30 to 49, and 30% of those ages 50 to 64 indicate that their phones do not have any type of screen lock.

Those with lower levels of educational attainment are also relatively likely to forego using a screen lock on their smartphones. Some 80% of smartphone owners with college degrees indicate that they use a screen lock on their phones, but that share falls to 66% among those who have high school diplomas or less.

Smartphone owners are similarly divided when it comes to updating the actual operating system on their devices. Some 42% of smartphone owners say that they typically update their operating system as soon as a new version is available, but more than half say that they only update their operating system when it is convenient (42%) or that they never update their phones (14%).

Anti-virus software is commonplace on desktop and laptop computers, and the same type of software can be installed on smartphones: 32% of smartphone owners report installing some sort of anti-virus software on their devices.

And when asked about some online activities they might engage in while connected to public Wi-Fi networks, most of these users indicate that they have gone online to access their social media accounts (66% of public Wi-Fi users have done this) or to check email (71%). However, around one-in-five of these users have used public Wi-Fi for more sensitive transactions such as online shopping (21%) or banking or other financial transactions (20%).

Previous data from companies like Dashlane has found that people generally have far too many passwords to remember. In fact, a Dashlane analysis of data from more than 20,000 users in 2015 found that the average user has 90 online accounts. Delving further into the data sample, Dashlane found that in the U.S., there are an average of 130 accounts assigned to a single email address.

Our survey results indicate that nearly one-third (31.3%) of respondents change their passwords one to two times per year. Just over one-fifth (22.4%) change their passwords more than five times per year, and 17% change their passwords every few months, or approximately three to four times per year. As long as the latter groups (the nearly 40% of users that reported changing passwords 3 or more times per year) are comfortable with the frequency of their changes and are practicing sound password security habits such as creating complex passwords, avoiding password reuse, and using secure password management practices, we should take this as a positive sign.

According to our survey results, 65.3% of the 869 responders to this question say that their most important consideration is security, focusing on creating passwords that are both unique and complex. On the other hand, more than one-third (34.7%) place greater importance on having passwords that are easy to remember.

With the average person maintaining 90 or more accounts that require passwords, many of which require more complex and lengthier passwords to bolster security, people are forced to find a way to remember all those passwords.

Ten percent of respondents were worried that someone would be able to sift through their social media accounts and gain access to their passwords. Companies concerned about their password security have been making the move to eliminate passwords completely, as there does not seem to be a way to have both passwords and security.

However, even when it came to sensitive information, such as online banking accounts, people had limited confidence in the security of their passwords. This can also be seen when looking at accounts that had been compromised, with 17.9% of respondents having experienced compromised or hacked online banking accounts.

On average, respondent passwords were 15 characters in length. Some opted to use a password generator for their accounts, especially for online banking and work-related ones. These generators are beneficial because they create strong, lengthy passwords for you at the push of a button, heavily reducing the chances of someone guessing your login information. However, hackers are still able to access accounts if they break into the database.

This study uses data from a survey of 1,015 people located in the U.S. Respondents were gathered through the Amazon Mechanical Turk survey platform where they were presented with a series of questions, including attention-check and disqualification questions. 58.5% of respondents identified as men, while 41.5% identified as women. Respondents ranged in age from 19 to 77 with an average age of 35. Millennials accounted for 26.8% of respondents, 27.5% were Gen Xers, 20.4% were baby boomers, and 25.3% were Gen Zers. Participants incorrectly answering any attention-check question had their answers disqualified. This study has a 3% margin of error on a 95% confidence interval.

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