Nearly 90% of adults in Cyprus used their smartphones to gain access to the Internet, while 80% of 16 to 74 year olds in the European Union used the Web in 2016. Mobile phones or smart phones were the device most used to surf the Internet, by over three-quarters (79%) of internet users. They were followed by laptops or netbooks (64%), desktop computers (54%) and tablet computers (44%), according to the Cyprus News Agency.
In Cyprus, over the last three months, 29% of the users who accessed the Internet used a desktop computer, 69% a laptop or netbook, 37% on a tablet, and 88% on a mobile phone. That was the second largest share in the EU, after Spain (93%), followed by the Netherlands (88%), Croatia (87%), the United Kingdom (86%) and Denmark (85%).
Mobile phones or smartphones were the devices of choice in 2016 by Internet surfers in every EU member state, except for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia where it was laptops or netbooks.
At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest share was recorded in the Czech Republic (55%), followed by Poland (60%), Latvia (62%), Lithuania (63%) and Greece (66%)
During the last 12 months, more than 70% of Internet users in the EU provided some kind of personal information online, many of them undertaking different actions to control access to this personal information on the Internet. Almost half of them (46%) refused to allow the use of personal information for advertising and 40% limited access to their profile or content on social networking sites.
In addition, 37% of internet users read privacy policy statements before providing personal information and 31% restricted access to their geographical location.
In Cyprus, when it comes to the main actions undertaken to manage access to personal information on the Internet, 61% of internet users over the last 12 months provided personal information, 22% claim they read privacy policy statements, 16% restricted access to geographical location, 34% have limited access to their profile or content on social networks and 26% refused to allow the use of personal information for advertising.
