People defend privacy, but routinely search others, survey finds.

A new survey from ReverseLookup points to a persistent contradiction at the heart of modern digital culture. While 67% of respondents said privacy matters deeply to them on a personal level, 54% admitted they have searched for information about someone they did not know well when given the opportunity. The findings suggest that privacy, widely framed as a core value, is often applied selectively rather than consistently.

The survey, conducted by ReverseLookup among just over 2,300 adults across the US and UK, explored attitudes toward personal data, online boundaries, and everyday investigative behaviour. Respondents overwhelmingly described privacy as a right they wished to protect for themselves, while treating public or semi-public information about others as fair ground for inquiry. Only 21% said they believed looking up strangers online constituted a privacy violation, even as 62% expressed concern about being researched by people they did not know.

This divergence reflects what the data suggests is an increasingly normalized moral asymmetry. Nearly six in ten respondents agreed that privacy is “situational,” dependent on who is being searched and for what reason, a framing that allows individuals to justify their own curiosity while remaining wary of scrutiny directed toward them. Privacy, in this context, functions less as a shared social norm than as a personal boundary.

The contradiction sharpens when intent is considered. 48% said they searched for others out of practical caution, such as verifying names, phone numbers, or online profiles, while 34% described their behaviour as driven by general curiosity rather than concern. When imagining themselves as the subject of a search, however, 71% said they would feel uneasy or exposed regardless of the searcher’s motive.

More than half of the respondents said that searching for information about others feels routine or automatic rather than deliberate. The practice appears to have shed much of its ethical weight, even as expectations of personal privacy remain high. What emerges is not a rejection of privacy, but a recalibration of when and for whom it is seen to apply.

Generational patterns reinforce rather than resolve this tension. Among respondents aged 25 to 34, 72% ranked privacy as a top personal concern, yet 61% in the same group reported looking up to someone they had recently met. Older respondents reported slightly lower search behaviour, but similar levels of concern about their own data visibility, suggesting the contradiction cuts across age rather than belonging to a single cohort.

The data also reveals how transparency is framed less as a shared obligation than as a defensive tool. 58% of respondents said access to information about others makes them feel safer, while only 19% said they felt safer knowing others could access information about them. The imbalance reflects a logic that increasingly defines digital interaction: privacy for oneself, transparency for everyone else.

Taken together, the ReverseLookup findings illustrate a quiet but consequential social contradiction. People articulate strong principles around privacy while routinely participating in practices that undermine those same principles for others. The survey does not suggest these concerns are insincere, but that they are unevenly applied, shaped by convenience, perceived risk, and the low friction of online search. As information becomes easier to access, privacy appears less like a shared standard and more like a personal exception.

About ReverseLookup:
ReverseLookup is a multi-input verification platform for phone numbers, emails, and images. Built for everyday use, ReverseLookup.com enables users to assess unfamiliar contacts, investigate questionable profiles, and identify potential fraud across key digital channels. It combines reverse search methods with open-source intelligence (OSINT) to offer a direct, accessible way to review digital identities and make informed decisions online.

Media Contact:
Ashleigh Thomas (PR Manager)
pr@reverselookup.com