Password Rules Annoy French Online Shoppers

How many passwords must we keep track of? This is on the minds of many online shoppers this season as they navigate logins, security questions and other formalities that can make online holiday shopping a drag.

These were the findings of a new study from the researchers at Kaspersky Lab. The research gauged the attitude of shoppers in various European countries, and found that – while online shopping is a real convenience at holiday time – the sheer number of different security protocols shoppers must navigate can often put a damper on holiday spirits.

Despite the occasional hassles, though, more than half of the Europeans polled (52%) plan to buy the majority of their Christmas gifts online this year. Affection for digital shopping is keener in the UK – where 66% of those polled are buying most of their gifts online – and weaker in France, where only 35% plan to do so.

Not surprisingly, it is the French who express the greatest annoyance at having to keep track of multiple passwords and account details when shopping.

But let’s not get into French-bashing here. After all, the French have a point: online shopping has become somewhat complicated – particularly for the security-minded among us who change passwords frequently, never save them in browsers, use unique passwords (for each site) and wipe our browser’s history each day.

For the security-minded, the very insecurity of the online environment compounds an already complicated situation. Maybe there is hope: new mobile services – Apple Pay in particular – offer a more secure shopping experience for online and offline shoppers alike.

Apple’s new system uses “tokens” in place of card information to keep things more secure. It also uses biometrics (in place of passwords) to ensure that only you can access your money through your smartphone. These are nice improvements, and ones which promise to take some of the hassle out of buying things using digital technology.