Results of a survey on data utilisation and security
Some of the results of the Survey on Data Utilisation and Security conducted in April 2022 by
the Center for International Economic Collaboration (CFIEC) are introduced in this paper.

1. Survey overview

・Survey target countries: Japan, United States, Singapore, the Philippines, India, Australia, China,Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Belgium (13 countries/regions in total; *notation of“regions” is omitted below).
・Survey period: 31 March (Thursday) – 27 April (Wednesday), 2022 *conducted sequentially byshifting the period of each country.
・Number of responses collected: 100 per country by category (400 in total).
[Consumers] Two groups of consumers from each country were separately surveyed in a question
group asking about their sense of security and another enquiring about their opinions on the free flowof data.
[Businesspersons] Two groups of businesspersons from each country were separately surveyed in aquestion group asking about their sense of security and another enquiring about their opinions about
the free flow of data.
・Question content: The two question groups of “security” and “free flow of data” were conducted
for the two groups of “consumers” and “businesspersons,” leading to a total of four question groups.
Each question group consisted of a maximum of 33 questions, which included questions about
respondents’ attributes, awareness of security, awareness of trust, status of cross-border transfer ofdata, awareness of data usage, and so on (survey companies in each country were in charge ofsampling).

12. Analysis of survey results
2.1 Unexpectedly high concern towards cross-border transfers (concerns shared bymany consumers about where data is provided).
In the questions, thoughts on several typical cross-border data transfers were shown to the consumers
in each country. We requested that the respondents provide answers for items with which they agreed,
allowing for duplication.

CONSUMER・DFFT edition（For Consumers）

Concerns on matters relating to personal data transfer
Whether personal data will
be viewed by thegovernment of the country
where data is transferred to612 people

111人

4人

136人
477人

20人

Whether personal data issafely processed andmanaged
945 people

The information such aslocation, system of thecountry where personal
data is transferred to
1,049 people

325人
123人

Not applicable
104 people

Source ：CFIEC “Survey on Data Utilization and Security” (April 2022)

Of the 1,300 respondents from 13 countries, 1,049 said that they were concerned about cross-bordertransfers, including the location and system of the transfer destination (location of transfer destination,legal system of transfer destination, handling at transfer destination). Nearly half (612) said that they
were concerned about whether their information would be viewed by the government of the transferdestination (government access system/situation). Even consumers were concerned about foreign
governments accessing their personal information.
Interestingly, 477 people, more than one-third of all respondents, expressed concern about all three
concerns in the above figure. Since respondents who chose one of these three points were roughly
close to the total number of respondents, the direction of concerns about data as seen by consumers
was generally the same, regardless of the country.
In other words, the shared concerns about the location and legal system, safety management, and2government access of the transfer destination suggest that these will become bigger issues in thisregion, where data utilisation will become more widespread in the future.

2.2. Over half of the consumers are concerned about government access, regardlessof their countries.
We asked consumers from each country whether potential access to their data by foreign governments
would affect their decisions when using online services and products located in foreign countries.

CONSUMER・DFFT edition（For Consumers）

Impact of Government Access to Data
Impact of Government Access on the user of foreign services
JapanBelgium
Australia
U.S.
Singapore
Indonesia
Vietnam
India
Thailand
China
TaiwanVery much aﬀected/Slightly aﬀected
Not aﬀected much
/Not aﬀected at all

Philippines
Malaysia-200020406080 （%）

Source ：CFIEC “Survey on Data Utilization and Security” (April 2022)

Across all 13 countries, 71% of respondents said that they were either “extremely concerned” or“somewhat concerned.” Examining by country, over half of the respondents selected “concerned”
even in Japan, where the number was the lowest. Comparing by country, nearly 80% of the people
were concerned about this issue in India, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia, followed by
Vietnam, China, and Taiwan. Thus, over half of the respondents in each country expressed concern.
Belgium chose “no impact” at nearly 20%, followed by China. We selected Belgium for the survey
because it is believed to represent the EU. There are cases in the EU where the judicial system of othercountries within the EU differs from that of the country of residence, and there are also cases where
the autonomy of local governments is strongly recognised; hence, the concept of “foreign country”
3may be slightly different in the EU.
Although concerns regarding government access were confirmed in all the countries, Japandemonstrated the weakest response. If we look at this lack of a strong response in a positive light, therespondents may expect the government and service providers to monitor the data flow to a certain
extent so that their personal information does not leak overseas; they have a certain degree of trust in
those entities. Alternatively, it is possible that they had little experience with incidents involving actual
harm and had not developed a sense of danger regarding the topic.

2.3. Businesspersons had the same concerns regarding government access that
consumers did
We asked businesspersons about the degree to which they had concerns about governments,
regardless of it being the governments of their own countries or a foreign country, with warrants,
court orders, subpoenas, or other legal requests in order to attempt to access customer data throughproviders of online services and products (e.g., email providers).

BUSINESS USER・DFFT edition（For Business Users）

Concerns about the GA

Mapped by total score
・ Highly concerned （5pt）
・Not concerned much （2pt）
・ Somewhat concerned（ 4pt） ・Not concerned at all （1pt）・ Neither concerned nor unconcerned （3pt）Japan319
China
369

Belgium
375
India
421

U.S.
367

Taiwan377
Thailand
395

Vietnam
414

Philippines460

Malaysia413
Singapore
393
Indonesia386

Austraria
362

Rank①Philippines②India③Vietnam④Malaysia⑤Thailand⑥Singapore⑦Indonesia⑧Taiwan⑨Belgium⑩China⑪U.S.
⑫Australia⑬Japan

460
421
414
413
395
393
386
377
375
369
367
362
319

Source ： CFIEC “Survey on Data Utilization and Security” (April 2022)

By country, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, and Malaysia had a high number of responses thatindicated concern. This trend is generally consistent with countries where consumer concerns were4strong.
As with consumers, Japan had the lowest number, with 15 people responding that they had noconcerns. Hence, they may maintain a weak response owing to a minimal sense of danger about thetopic, as was the case with consumers. In China, where government access to private data is a concern,
the concern is not as high as it is for consumers. This likely indicates differences in feelings regarding
one’s data as an individual and feelings towards maintaining others’ data as a business.

2.4. 79% of businesses are severely affected by government access in terms of theirtransactions.
The left side of the graph shows the results of a question regarding the impact on a business if thegovernment of the country where the business is located or the government of the country where thebusiness operates increases the business’s disclosure requirements or excessively strengthens its
control over the data.
The right side of the graph shows the result of a question that enquired how much the possibility ofgovernment access to business data will affect domestic and foreign transactions.

BUSINESS USER・DFFT edition（For Business Users）

Business impact of Government accessSerious disruption to most of the business
Serious disruption on about half of the business
Serious disruption to a small percentage of the businessBusiness Impact of disclosure requirements or control over your data

Business Impact of the government having access to data

日本
Japan
日本
ベルギー
Belgium
ベルギー
オーストラリア
Australia
オーストラリア
U.S.
アメリカ
アメリカ
Singapore
シンガポールIndonesia
インドネシアVietnam
ベトナム
ベトナム
India
インド
インド
Thailand
タイ
タイ
China
中国
中国
Taiwan台湾
台湾
Philippines
フィリピン
フィリピン
Malaysia
マレーシア
マレーシア
100

8060402000204060

80

Source ： CFIEC “Survey on Data Utilization and Security” (April 2022)

5(pt)
100

For both questions, over 60% of respondents in all countries except Japan answered that at least asmall percentage of their businesses would be severely disrupted; across all countries, 79% of all
respondents indicated that they would be impacted by government access 1.
Particularly in Singapore, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, andVietnam, over 80% responded to both questions that there would be some kind of severe impact on
their business. In the Philippines, India, and Thailand, many respondents said that most transactions
would be severely affected.
In China, the proportion of those who answered that most of their transactions would be severelyimpacted from among those who answered that there would be a disruption, was low; it may be said
that they are already immune to such a disruption.

＊＊＊＊＊
The above statistics project the unique aspects of Japan.
According to Section 2.2, over 50% of Japanese consumers responded that the possibility of aforeign government having access to their data affects their decisions when using online services
located in foreign countries. According to sections 2.3 and 2.4, businesspersons in Japan haveextremely low concerns and impacts regarding government access compared to businesspersons inother countries. Japanese businesspersons should be more sensitive to risk.

1This question also had the option “almost no impact,” and the graph shows the number of all other responses, that is, the numberof responses that responded that at least a small percentage of their business would be severely impacted. When taking all
respondents as the denominator and totalling all 13 countries, the average of the questions on the left side of the graph was 81%, thatof the questions on the right side of the graph was 76%, and that of these values was used to calculate the value of 79%.

6