Privacy statistics
This page sets out key statistics and figures on privacy protection, data breaches and cybersecurity in Canada and worldwide.
📊 Canada — data breaches
- In 2023 the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) received more than 700 data breach reports from federal organizations.
- Since breach reporting became mandatory (2018), more than 4,000 breaches have been reported at the federal level.
- The financial sector accounts for roughly 30% of reported breaches in Canada.
📊 Quebec — Law 25 and the Commission d'accès à l'information (CAI)
- Law 25 came into force progressively between 2022 and 2023.
- Organizations must notify the CAI within 72 hours of discovering a confidentiality incident.
- For non-compliance, fines can reach $25 million or 4% of global turnover.
- The CAI handled more than 1,500 complaints in 2022–2023, a record since it was founded.
🌍 Global figures — cybersecurity
- The average global cost of a data breach in 2023 was USD 4.45 million (IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023).
- 83% of organizations suffered more than one data breach (IBM, 2023).
- The average time to identify and contain a breach is 277 days (IBM, 2023).
- Phishing accounts for 16% of intrusion vectors (IBM, 2023).
📱 Digital privacy — how people behave online
- 72% of Canadians say they are concerned about the protection of their privacy online (OPC survey, 2023).
- Only 28% of internet users read the privacy policy before accepting terms of use.
- 90% of mobile apps collect data beyond what is strictly needed to function.
- Canada ranks third worldwide for the number of VPN users per capita (GlobalWebIndex, 2023).
🔐 Passwords and authentication
- 81% of hacking-related breaches involve weak or stolen passwords (Verizon DBIR, 2023).
- "123456" remains the most used password in the world for the fifth year running (NordPass, 2023).
- Two-factor authentication (2FA) blocks 99.9% of automated attacks (Microsoft).