Online Forms May Collect and Share Your Data Even if You Don’t Click Submit
“People are running huge enterprises off of hacking and stealing data.” — Tim Cook
You might expect that if you complete an online form on a website and click the submit button, the data you enter will be stored and probably shared out. What may surprise you is that many web forms save, use, and share the data you enter even if you change your mind and don’t submit them, perhaps because you’re having second thoughts about providing the requested data.
Of particular concern is the fact that one of the well-known entities found to be gathering the data from these forms was previously fined $5 billion by federal authorities for its role in the collection and mishandling of personal information.
Some statistics…
A survey conducted by business and technical service provider The Manifest found that just over 80% of 502 respondents have at one time or another changed their minds about submitting a web form after entering some of the personal details requested. These forms could be online surveys, site membership applications, or some other variant of a fill-in-the-blank questionnaire.
