DataReportal recently conducted a study, amassing insights from different age groups to gauge global VPN (Virtual private network) usage and activity across the board.
VPN usage has gotten to be more and more common with each passing year. What started out as an online privacy method considered additional, or even vestigial, is now considered perhaps the only medium one has in the online world. Third party companies are everywhere, cookies are present on every recognizable website, and advertisers will not rest until they've attained at least some part of a user data and browser history. What should be considered amoral, and even illegal activities are currently the norm. Apple's release of the iOS 14 Tracking/Transparency feature, while receiving public praise, was pushed back against by many different corporations and companies, Facebook being paramount amongst them. Yes, online privacy should be a necessity and a basic right, but it's considered to be a commodity at best nowadays.
As people become more and more aware of how their information is being secretly harvested every second that they're online, VPN usage is becoming more common. Sure, there are many users that have perhaps only heard of them through YouTube videos, but usage has also increased. However, is it still enough? Is VPN usage wide enough to be considered common? That is a question that research and analysis firm DataReportal is attempting to answer, with the help of App Annie data. In the article that we will be discussing today, researchers drew data from multiple different countries and age groups to determine VPN usage and practices in the month of October, 2021, dividing them by country and by age group.
The age groups were defined as being individuals aged 16 to 64. With this in mind, the most amount of VPN users were found to be in India, with 43.2% of the population accounting for this. There's a number of reasons that could potentially account for this, with IT knowledge being a big reason. Sure, there's a stereotype associated with Indians for being found exclusively working in IT and call centers. While that stereotype is both wrong and even harmful to some extent, there is some truth to those words. Fact of the matter is that India accounts for a lot of technological consumption, across individuals from all sorts of social and financial backgrounds. India's also heavily invested in the likes of IT parks, helping the population get more and more used to the digital age. Therefore, VPN usage being this high here makes complete sense.
VPN usage has gotten to be more and more common with each passing year. What started out as an online privacy method considered additional, or even vestigial, is now considered perhaps the only medium one has in the online world. Third party companies are everywhere, cookies are present on every recognizable website, and advertisers will not rest until they've attained at least some part of a user data and browser history. What should be considered amoral, and even illegal activities are currently the norm. Apple's release of the iOS 14 Tracking/Transparency feature, while receiving public praise, was pushed back against by many different corporations and companies, Facebook being paramount amongst them. Yes, online privacy should be a necessity and a basic right, but it's considered to be a commodity at best nowadays.
As people become more and more aware of how their information is being secretly harvested every second that they're online, VPN usage is becoming more common. Sure, there are many users that have perhaps only heard of them through YouTube videos, but usage has also increased. However, is it still enough? Is VPN usage wide enough to be considered common? That is a question that research and analysis firm DataReportal is attempting to answer, with the help of App Annie data. In the article that we will be discussing today, researchers drew data from multiple different countries and age groups to determine VPN usage and practices in the month of October, 2021, dividing them by country and by age group.
The age groups were defined as being individuals aged 16 to 64. With this in mind, the most amount of VPN users were found to be in India, with 43.2% of the population accounting for this. There's a number of reasons that could potentially account for this, with IT knowledge being a big reason. Sure, there's a stereotype associated with Indians for being found exclusively working in IT and call centers. While that stereotype is both wrong and even harmful to some extent, there is some truth to those words. Fact of the matter is that India accounts for a lot of technological consumption, across individuals from all sorts of social and financial backgrounds. India's also heavily invested in the likes of IT parks, helping the population get more and more used to the digital age. Therefore, VPN usage being this high here makes complete sense.
The global data shows that, 28 percent (or roughly every 3 in 10 of the) consumers are using VPN for their internet activity.
When discussing numbers via age groups, the chart featured below divided everyone into four groups. The first and second groups (16-24 and 25-34 respectively) account for the most amount of VPN usage. Generally, the male population used VPNs more, but since these numbers come from a global standpoint, a lot of this can be chalked down to cultural differences and is reporting. At any rate, the population that used VPNs the least is, to no surprise, the 55-64 age group. Naturally, the eldest group would be the most unfamiliar with VPNs, their importance, and their implementation. However, even then 34% of the entire population is accounted for. With 20.2% males and 13.8% females using VPN software to some extent, it seems that the elderly are more hip than we anticipated. Good to know.
Read next: Tech companies are presenting incomplete reports of their carbon footprint and greenhouse emission to remain good with the investors as reported by Tech University Munich
When discussing numbers via age groups, the chart featured below divided everyone into four groups. The first and second groups (16-24 and 25-34 respectively) account for the most amount of VPN usage. Generally, the male population used VPNs more, but since these numbers come from a global standpoint, a lot of this can be chalked down to cultural differences and is reporting. At any rate, the population that used VPNs the least is, to no surprise, the 55-64 age group. Naturally, the eldest group would be the most unfamiliar with VPNs, their importance, and their implementation. However, even then 34% of the entire population is accounted for. With 20.2% males and 13.8% females using VPN software to some extent, it seems that the elderly are more hip than we anticipated. Good to know.
Read next: Tech companies are presenting incomplete reports of their carbon footprint and greenhouse emission to remain good with the investors as reported by Tech University Munich