14 DAY TRIAL // It has taken a bit of time for things to sink in, but US citizens are finally leery of the government’s invasion of their privacy when online.
The information comes from a new survey by the Pew Research Center, which reveals that 91 percent of adults “agree” or “strongly agree” that Americans have lost control over how private information is collected and used by companies. At the same time, 80 percent of people who subscribe to social networking sites say they are concerned about the risk posed by the advertisers and businesses collecting their private information.
Some 70 percent of social networking site users say that they are at least somewhat concerned about the government accessing some of the information they share on social networking sites without their knowledge.
80 percent of adults “agree” or “strongly agree” that Americans should be concerned about the government’s monitoring of phone calls and Internet communications, while only 18 percent wave off such ideas.
A majority of Americans, namely some 61 percent, said that they felt like they would like to do more when it came to protecting their online personal information and correspondence, while only 37 percent felt like they already did enough in this regard. Only 24 percent of people believe that it’s easy for them to be anonymous when they’re online.
Growing concern for government surveillance
“Americans’ lack of confidence in core communications channels tracks closely with how much they have heard about government surveillance programs. For five out of the six communications channels we asked about, those who have heard ‘a lot’ about government surveillance are significantly more likely than those who have heard just ‘a little’ or ‘nothing at all’ to consider the method to be ‘not at all secure’ for sharing private information with another trusted person or organization,” the study reads.
The report sought to examine Americans’ privacy perceptions and behaviors following the revelations regarding the surveillance programs deployed by the United States government, which were revealed by Edward Snowden in June 2013.
The Pew Research Center’s Internet Project commissioned a panel of 607 adults who agreed to respond to four surveys over the course of a year. The data above comes from the first one, conducted between January 11 and 28. This means that more studies are to come and we’ll be able to assess whether people’s concern about their privacy deepens or not.
