Two thirds of the Dutchmen restrict app rights at smartphones

Two-thirds of Dutch smartphone users aged 16 to 75 have limited or restricted access to personal data when installing or using apps on their smartphones, according to figures published by the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) on Monday.

This concerns personal data such as contact lists, photos and the location of the smartphone.

The survey also shows that 12 percent of users did not know that access for apps can be limited. 3 percent said they did not use apps.

Especially often younger people (between 16 and 35 years old) block access for apps. Relatively more elderly people said that they did not know that this is possible. In addition, highly educated people take measures more often than the less educated.

Approximately 3 percent of smartphone users have sometimes lost documents, photos or other personal data, for example to a virus. This puts the Netherlands at the bottom of the list of countries in the European Union, where the average is 5 percent.

In 2018 a total of 87 percent of the Dutch population used a smartphone. Together with Denmark, the Netherlands shares the leading position in Europe, according to Statistics Netherlands.

Dutch people less familiar with options than average in EU

The Netherlands is in the fifth place of countries in the European Union where residents have restricted or refused access to data. In France, the front-runner, 77 percent of residents have restricted access, followed by Germany with 75 percent.

Furthermore, only Sweden and Luxembourg are above the Netherlands. In the EU the average is 58 percent. Italy, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic are at the bottom of the list.

Statistics Netherlands cites it strikingly that 12 percent of Dutch people did not know that such measures exist. In the EU this average is 7 percent and the Netherlands is in fifth place.