The majority of smartphone owners taking part in an 11-nation survey said they'd rather have their nude pics publicly exposed than their financial information.

The survey by Avast Software underscores that people believe that they would suffer greater consequences, and perhaps for longer, if their financial data was exposed compared to pictures of themselves without clothes leaking online.

"When asked if people prefer to have someone access their nude photos or bank account information, it was interesting to see that in all countries, the vast majority said it would be less painful to have someone access nude photos," according to the survey. The US led the way with almost 77 percent of respondents saying they'd rather have their nude photos exposed over their financial data. The UK came in second, with 72 percent. Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico checked in at about 50 percent.

More than 23,500 smartphone owners responded to Avast's telephone poll conducted in October. But despite respondents having an overall concern about their privacy, less than a majority even locked their devices, the survey found. The poll also discovered that people locked their photo apps over their banking apps, despite them being more concerned about their financial privacy.

However, this survey and research data suggests that while people are very concerned about their privacy, they aren’t taking too many steps to protect themselves. For example, across the world, more than 40% of smartphone users don’t even take the simple step of locking their phones from prying eyes. In addition, people claim to be more concerned about losing their banking data, but when given the choice, many more of them lock their photo apps instead of their banking apps. As is common with many situations, when asked, we give the answers we are supposed to give, but we don’t necessarily live by our answers.

Surprisingly, none of the respondents ranked their governments as their primary fear of intrusions, the survey found.

"In most countries, smartphone users are the most afraid of cybercriminals. Curiously enough, in countries including Argentina, Brazil, France, India, and Russia, mothers rank first. Government spying ranks second in the US, Mexico, Germany, and the Czech Republic," according to the survey.

The most protected app was WhatsApp. The photo gallery app came in second. Facebook was fourth. The least protected apps were the Chrome browser, files, contacts, and text messages.

"The majority of smartphone users are worried that someone may access the personal data they keep on their smartphones, especially their financial information. This concern is justified, as a considerable number of respondents have had someone stumble upon their private information in the past," the survey concluded.

Listing image by David van der Mark