Three in four people (77 %) in the EU-27 view the use of encryption to protect one’s private online communication as very or fairly important (Figure 4). More than two in five (45 %) consider the use of encryption as very important. On the other hand, 12 % of people think it is not very important or not at all important to use encryption to protect a person’s private online communication, and 11 % indicate that they do not engage in private online communication.

Figure 4 – Views on the importance of encryption to protect one’s private online communication (EU-27, %)

The bar chart shows people’s views on the importance of encryption to protect one’s private online communication. 45 % see encryption as very important and 32 % as fairly important, while 9 % consider it as not very important and 3 % as not at all important. In addition, 11 % do not engage in private online communication, and 1 % answered ‘Don’t know’.

NB: n = 26,453

Question: ‘How important is it to you that your private communication (such as when using WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage or other private messaging applications/direct messaging) with others is protected through encryption?’ Respondents could answer the question using the categories shown in the figure above.

Source: FRA, 2026

Looking only at people who express concern about various actors accessing their private online communications without permission, 82 % consider it very or fairly important that their private communications are protected by encryption, compared with 63 % among people who are not concerned about various actors accessing their online communication or who give a ‘neutral’ answer (that is, selected the middle value in the scale from 1 (‘not at all concerned’) to 7 (‘extremely concerned’). Further, 84 % of people who use the internet every day or almost every day view encryption as very or fairly important in protecting their private online communication, as opposed to 61 % who use the internet a few times a week or less often.

Views regarding the importance of encryption to protect one’s private online communication do not differ notably between women and men – 77 % of women and men, respectively, consider it very or fairly important. In terms of age, over four in five people in most age groups consider encryption as very or fairly important, with the exception of people aged 55 years or more. In this age group, 66 % view encryption as very or fairly important – however, the share of people not engaging in private online communication is also notably higher among people aged 55 and older. If people who don’t use private online communication are excluded from the analysis, only minor differences remain between the oldest age group (55+) and others with respect to their views on the importance of using encryption. A similar pattern can be observed with respect to people’s education and their views on the importance of protecting private communication with encryption. Differences between those with at most lower secondary education (64 % consider encryption very or fairly important) and those with upper secondary education (79 %) or tertiary education (86 %) to a large extent disappear when people who do not engage in private online communication are excluded.

In all EU Member States, a majority of people view it as very or fairly important to protect one’s private online communication with encryption – this ranges from 53 % in Romania, 62 % in Estonia and 65 % in Czechia and Sweden, respectively, to 87 % in Luxembourg, 88 % in the Netherlands, and 89 % in Finland and Ireland, respectively (Figure 5).

The strongest support for the use of encryption – considering it very important – can be found in Malta (68 %), Ireland (68 %), Luxembourg (66 %), and Cyprus and Finland (61 %, respectively).

Figure 5 – Views on the importance of encryption to protect one’s private online communication, by EU Member State (%)

The chart shows the views on the importance of encryption according to respondents in each EU Member State. Results range from 89 % of respondents who view it as important in Ireland and Finland, to 53 % of respondents in Romania. Additionally, the chart distinguishes between those who see encryption as very important and those who see it as fairly important. The results range from 68 % in Ireland and Malta, respectively, who see encryption as very important, to 23 % in Romania who see it as very important. The EU average is 77 %, divided in 45 % that see it as very important, and 32 % that see it as fairly important.

NB: n = 26,453

Question: For details on the question asked, see notes under Figure 4 .

Source: FRA, 2026