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Brits on track to spend 27 years of their lives online – raising risk of scams

ended 15. July 2026

Brits are now on track to spend 27 years, 2 months and 7 days of their lives online, according to new research from NordVPN.

This means the average person in the UK will spend roughly a third of their life connected to the internet.

Brits now spend 55 hours and 52 minutes online each week, with the average person first going online at 8:00am and not logging off until 9:00pm.

The study found that three-quarters of Brits have shared their full name publicly online, 71% have shared their date of birth, and 59% have even shared their home address.

NordVPN warns that the more time people spend online, the more personal data they leave behind for scammers and hackers to exploit and is advising internet users on how to keep themselves safe in the digital age. 

  • What is your reaction to this research?
  • Does this leave people more at risk of scams?
  • What other thoughts do you have?

Responses by tomorrow.

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Alex Tofts
broadband expert at Broadband Genie
"Spending more time online gives a bigger window to be a target. One of the easiest way scammers or hackers can target you is through your home Wi-Fi. We found almost half of users have never touched their default router settings.

"Details such as Wi-Fi network passwords and admin logins can be easily guessed, and the default Wi-Fi name is a dead giveaway. The risk may be small, but users can eliminate this by spending five minutes changing their network name, Wi-Fi password, and router login password.

"More needs to be done in the industry. Providers and router manufacturers should be prompting customers to change these details and to help educate their customers of the risks if they don't".

https://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband/help/router-security-research
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Dariusz Karpowicz
Director at Albion Financial Advice
Twenty seven years online is a public health issue dressed up as a tech statistic. We treat obesity as a national crisis, yet nobody blinks at 13 hours a day of scrolling that erodes attention spans, literacy and mental health. Short video feeds are not making anyone smarter; the evidence points the other way.
The scam risk follows naturally. When 59% of people have posted their home address and half have never changed a default router password, fraudsters barely need to work. The more of your life lives online, the bigger the target on your back, and most people are handing over the ammunition for free.
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Antonia Medlicott
Founder & MD at Investing Insiders
With the amount of time we all spend online and the information we share on social media, people leave themselves a lot more susceptible to being victims of a scam. Despite advice pointing out not to share personal details, scams have become far more sophisticated in recent years. They now often include things like fake websites, apps, and other digital media to add legitimacy to their operation, making it harder than ever to discern if they’re a reputable company or a fraudulent body trying to steal your cash.

Thanks to the rise of generative AI, we’re also seeing more scams involving fake testimonials and endorsements from celebrities across social media.

Although the government is taking steps to combat rising levels of fraud, including newly introduced plans to crack down on pension scams by introducing new warning flags, there’s only so much that can be done due to how advanced these scams have become; it isn’t always immediately obvious that something is wrong.
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Editor
Evren Ergin
Founder And Developer at ValuQ
Look again at the three numbers in that research. Three-quarters have shared their name, 71% their date of birth, 59% their home address. That is not trivia, that is the exact kit needed to impersonate someone and go after the biggest thing they own.

This is how property fraud starts. Someone assembles enough of you to pose as you, then tries to sell or remortgage your home while you are still living in it. HM Land Registry blocked fraud against £59 million of property last year. Cifas logged over 242,000 identity fraud cases, more than half of all fraud, and AI makes forged documents easy now.


As a tech company our view is simple: collect as little as possible. The industry hoards data and worries later. The data you never hold cannot leak.

Two free minutes: HM Land Registry's Property Alert flags anyone applying against your title. Almost nobody uses it.
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Premium
Debbie Porter
Managing Director at Destination Digital Marketing
Whilst it’s easy to understand the intention here with this research, the stats are misleading. “Three-quarters of Brits have shared their full name publicly online, 71% have shared their date of birth, and 59% have even shared their home address.”

Name and date of birth would be easily achieved by everyone who has a Facebook or LinkedIn account as you have to share your real name to get an account. Your mobile phone is also required to open a Facebook account. Anyone who has ever ordered anything online will have also have had to input their address details. Ordering by mail needs a delivery address, otherwise it can’t be delivered.

Data security and time spent online are two separate issues. With increasing numbers of people wanting to work from home, online jobs are pretty much the only way to achieve this. The U.K. is predominantly a service industry, so the workforce is mostly online just to do their jobs. Leisure time online therefore would average 15 hours a week.