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More than half of americans refuse to use a product or service because of poor privacy features

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Recently, there have been a lot of privacy issues: the Google browser was busted to collect user data, and the Zoom user account was sold at a low price

More than half of americans refuse to use certain products or services because of privacy concerns, according to a survey released on April 14 by the Pew Research Center, a washington-based think tank for BlockBeats news.

According to the report, many americans recently feel that their personal information is less secure and they are concerned about how companies and the government are using their personal data. The results show that 52% of adults are worried about giving away their personal information and aren't sure how much information they need to give out, which is why they may choose not to use certain services and products.

On the other hand, people who have actually been the victims of a data breach in the past 12 months will be more concerned about keeping their personal data safe.The same could be said for those who had previously had their social media accounts or email addresses hacked, with 63 per cent of them expressing privacy concerns, the researchers noted.

Other notable factors include education and income :55 percent of college graduates and 54 percent of adults from families with annual incomes of $75,000 or more decided not to use products or services for privacy reasons. Only 45 percent and 48 percent of respondents with a high school degree or less and incomes under $30,000 were concerned about the security of their personal data.

Browsers, on the other hand, have been a big privacy problem. Brave, a privacy browser, introduced universal data protection rules in Europe in March. The executive of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) filed a formal complaint against Google. Brave says Google is abusing its power by collecting user data through its dozens of different services and allowing them to also share data, creating a data warehouse that is "free for all".

Another recent hot topic is the leaking of user information by Zoom, a video-conferencing platform. Pulse has previously reported that personal information, including email addresses and photos, of at least thousands of Zoom users was leaked. The information is also sold cheaply on the dark web and on hacker forums, for less than a penny each.

For most users, it is sometimes timely to know that the application developers or product providers are using and collecting their information, but because there are so few alternative products or services, users do not have much choice. Sometimes personal information has to be sacrificed in exchange for essential services and products.