In the digital age, privacy remains a major concern for the average Fleming. We would much rather entrust our personal data to the public sector than to private companies.

Imec published the Digimeter of the Year 2022 this morning. The research institute conducts a large-scale survey every year of how Flemish people view and interact with technology. This year 12,000 Flemish citizens of different ages and educational levels filled in part of the questionnaire.

Technology plays an increasingly important role in our private and personal everyday life. According to Digimeter, the Flemish view this with mixed feelings. While the majority of participants believe that technology helps them stay connected and informed, there is also growing concern about the dependency on all of these devices. In particular, data protection is (and remains) one of the greatest concerns of citizens.

Concerned about digital privacy

This concern stems mainly from the constant need to share personal information in order to use online services. Half of Flemings say they are concerned about their online privacy. This is consistent with previous research by imec.

Seven out of ten consumers are annoyed by the lack of transparency in the way companies handle their data. Three out of ten see no problem in sharing data, at least if they get something in return. When your business requests data from customers, providing them with sufficient and clear information on how you process that data is the lesson we can learn from this.

Trust the government

Trust in the private sector is therefore rather low when it comes to entrusting personal data. The public sector enjoys more trust. 57 percent of Flemish people entrust their personal data to the government. Hospitals enjoy the highest level of public trust at 72 percent.

Because the majority of citizens prefer to regulate official matters digitally (47%), with filling out the tax letter being the top priority (64%). 45 percent prefer to receive government communications digitally. All that is required for this is the provision of personal data.

The trust may be there, but Flemings feel frustrated in the digital relationship with the government. 46 percent find that digital government services require them to enter the same data too often. Only 30 percent find it easy to work with government platforms. There is also a lack of transparency and a feeling that the government “knows too much” among Flemish people.

Is solid the solution?

The Digimeter also measures what the Flemings want to solve these privacy issues. 80 percent of the participants want a central place from which all documents and forms can be managed. This is essentially what the Solid project is trying to achieve. Solid strives for a single location for all your personal data, managed by the citizen himself.

The Flemish government is also actively involved in this project, but the Flemish people do not seem to be aware of it at all. Twenty-one percent of participants say they know the concept, but only eight percent know enough to explain it to someone else. Only two percent have already experimented with it. So there is still a lot to get here.