About 28% of social media users in India have an anonymous profile or a profile without their real names, photos, and personally-identifiable information on different platforms, according to a survey by cybersecurity solutions provider Kaspersky.
The survey, conducted in November among 1,240 respondents from the Asia-Pacific region, found that almost 3-in-10 social media users in Asia-Pacific have an anonymous profile. Anonymity is being used the most in Southeast Asia at 35%, followed by India at 28% and Australia at 20%.
The platform being used the most by Indian users who want to keep their identities anonymous are Facebook (76%), YouTube (60%), Instagram (47%), and Twitter (28%), it added.
“From the initial purpose of finding and connecting with friends and families, social media has evolved and will continue to evolve in unprecedented ways. It has played a key role on how we socialise and identify with each other, but now, we have arrived at a fork in the road where virtual profiles of both individuals and companies are being used as a parameter for judgment,” Dipesh Kaura, general manager for South Asia, Kaspersky, said.
More than half (59%) of those surveyed stated that they use anonymous accounts to exercise their freedom of speech without affecting their reputation, while 53% wanted to indulge in their secret interests that they were not too keen on having their friends find out about.
