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posted by janrinok on Monday November 18 2019, @08:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the trust-has-to-be-earned dept.

Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information

A majority of Americans believe their online and offline activities are being tracked and monitored by companies and the government with some regularity. It is such a common condition of modern life that roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults say they do not think it is possible to go through daily life without having data collected about them by companies or the government.

Data-driven products and services are often marketed with the potential to save users time and money or even lead to better health and well-being. Still, large shares of U.S. adults are not convinced they benefit from this system of widespread data gathering. Some 81% of the public say that the potential risks they face because of data collection by companies outweigh the benefits, and 66% say the same about government data collection. At the same time, a majority of Americans report being concerned about the way their data is being used by companies (79%) or the government (64%). Most also feel they have little or no control over how these entities use their personal information, according to a new survey of U.S. adults by Pew Research Center that explores how Americans feel about the state of privacy in the nation.

Americans' concerns about digital privacy extend to those who collect, store and use their personal information. Additionally, majorities of the public are not confident that corporations are good stewards of the data they collect. For example, 79% of Americans say they are not too or not at all confident that companies will admit mistakes and take responsibility if they misuse or compromise personal information, and 69% report having this same lack of confidence that firms will use their personal information in ways they will be comfortable with.

Several of the queries of this survey focus on public perceptions of what "the government" does related to personal data. For instance, respondents were asked: "As far as you know, how much of what you do online or on your cellphone is being tracked by the government?" Related questions focused on people's attitudes about the data the government collects about them.

It is difficult to determine how much personal data the government collects and otherwise can access through private company records. Administrative government agencies like the IRS, Census Bureau, Postal Service and social welfare departments gather various personal details about people. That includes their tax- and employment-related information, physical attributes if they get a government ID, financial circumstances if they get benefits from social, housing and employment training programs, health information if they participate in government health-insurance programs, addresses, household composition, property ownership if they own houses or cars and educational details if they get student loan or grant, for example. This list is not exhaustive.

Beyond that, national security organizations like the National Security Agency have authority to monitor phone traffic and people's movements. With subpoenas or court orders and warrants, law enforcement organizations can typically access and monitor people's phone and traffic records, health records (including genetic records), online and app browsing, search queries, texts and emails. Users' social media activities and their tech-based social networks are at least at times examined in investigations, according to "transparencyreports" released by the companies.

It is important to note, that there are often limitations on the ways government agencies can share what they know with others, including those in other parts of the government.

There is also a collective sentiment that data security is more elusive today than in the past. When asked whether they think their personal data is less secure, more secure or about the same as it was five years ago, 70% of adults say their personal data is less secure. Only 6% report that they believe their data is more secure today than it was in the past.

Wikpedia's List of Data Breaches.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Fluffeh on Monday November 18 2019, @09:08PM (3 children)

    by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 18 2019, @09:08PM (#921679) Journal

    I am really surprised that not everyone thinks that their every move is being added to a database, whether it is driving down the street and having your number plate/face scanned and inserted into a database, or whether it's cookies being used to snoop and follow you from one site to another, or cheeky little "Like me!" buttons plastered all over the net, adding a tiny set of big brother eyes on so much of the web. Every customer rewards card, every single token ID from a banking corporation, linked back to a unique credit card all linking back to you. The wet-dream of every advertising megalomaniac from the eighties, nineties and naughties through to now. Google, Amazon and anyone else can literally place a always-on microphone to record you in your own house - at YOUR expense.

    Everything is being tracked in some way, shape or form. Some of it well. Some poorly. Some of it will be breached, hacked and sold off to the highest, but still low bidder, some of it will remain only available to the folks that captured it from you in the first place, to place only the finest digital advertising offerings in front of you for your pleasure and fancy.

    So, six in ten people are on the money, and four in ten folks haven't caught up yet - that's cool, they're probably shopping with their cards, or in a lovely youtube journey being served videos that just keep them glued to their device. The smart folks are probably hiking some amazing desolate trail - but having a gps enabled smart phone up and running, you know, just in case something goes wrong - or to have a quick check-in of social media while out there - but totally off-the-grid.

    *rolls eyes while sipping coffee*

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @10:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @10:02PM (#921705)

    The people are kept entertained with bread, circuses, and Trump hate sessions.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @11:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @11:06PM (#921731)

    Well, everyone who doesn't use the internet or has less than high school education was sampled, probably resulting in oversampling. Plus 1/3 of respondents had only complete high school, 1/4 make $30,000 a year or less, and 22% are 65+ Altogether, it doesn't surprise me that more people don't know that, as they think they are immune because they aren't on the internet, they are too uneducated to the point they can't understand it (and no, I'm not saying everyone with HS education can't understand it), they refuse to try to understand computer-related things, they are too overstretched to keep up with that sort of stuff in the news, or they consume news that doesn't describe that sort of thing.

  • (Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Tuesday November 19 2019, @03:38PM

    by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Tuesday November 19 2019, @03:38PM (#921951) Journal

    I have seen evidence I am being tracked when I have no transmitting devices and go to random places, I strongly believe they are putting passive rfid stuff in/on clothing that bounces location data back from people who have been visually linked to that serial.

    Or something like that, 3d radar imaging of everything on earth might be on the table. I am not saying I am being followed everywhere or that this is all of the time, but some of the times when I have noticed I was being followed, I was like, wow, someone would have to have been following me on camera for the last 30 minutes to intersect me here. 2 weeks ago it happened pretty obviously. It is odd when someone walks ahead of you for 10 city blocks until you get back home, chances of that being random are none.

    This is one of the reasons I oppose 5g, they want to give us something for free, meaning their interest is likely in a slimy lateral power grab and with all of the new frequency bands, the spying potential is just that much less limited.

    And they are fixing something that isn't broken, no one is asking for more bandwidth, the stuff works fine already. There is no case for 4k on mobile, that is just a case for whatever they have up their sleeve.