Nearly half of businesses think protecting privacy of users is “business critical”, but only 18 per cent think there are enough online tools to help them achieve it, according to new research.

Among privacy threats mentioned by 2,600 international respondents to a survey by analytics business Piwik PRO, 30 per cent picked out the NSA – America’s security agency – and search engine behemoth Google, cited by 18 per cent.

“In the wake of the Snowden revelations, it is vital that people feel confident their personal data is being handled appropriately,” said Maciej Zawadzinski, co-founder of Piwik PRO.

“While many privacy startups have been hard at work building tools to help web users protect their privacy in risk areas such as analytics, online communications and search, there is still a long way to go before businesses feel that user privacy is sufficiently protected.”