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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: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday November 18 2019, @10:27PM (8 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Monday November 18 2019, @10:27PM (#921712)

    More like "Americans: concerned, confused and... oh look: free lolcat videos!"

    In other words, if they're so concerned, why don't they do something about it instead of submitting? Because it suits them fine at the end of the day.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @11:45PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @11:45PM (#921749)

    In other words, if they're so concerned, why don't they do something about it instead of submitting?

    Do what?

    What could the average citizen do that might result in change? March in the street? Who would join you? Even if you did march, what would happen other than the sanitation department drawing overtime for the cleanup the next day? No one is listening.

    How about writing a strongly worded letter to your elected representative? That's nice, but the corporations send letters with nice fat checks in them. Gee, I wonder which letters get read?

    Voting? Between choice A and choice B, both of who have already been vetted by those already in power (and probably controlled by massive amounts of blackmail material on both of them)? Or try for an outsider like Trump and watch the powerful do everything they can to eliminate him? I suppose that's great entertainment, but what does it change?

    I honestly don't see anything non-violent working to change anything significant. Violence changes things (just look through history) but that's a hell I don't really want to live through, and the results are usually to make things worse. I'd bet most people don't want to take that gamble.

    So I ask again, do what?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @12:01AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @12:01AM (#921755)

      No pain no gain. Just saying.
      On a more practical note, withdrawal of cooperation works wonders. One can start with depositing sanitary products into toilets and take it from there. The bottom line is not to cooperate with any authorities in any form - never do what they ask and always do what they don't like. The goal would be to crash the current way of life - make it impossible to keep.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @03:19AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @03:19AM (#921819)

        One can start with depositing sanitary products into toilets and take it from there.

        I'm lost. Like what? Storing incontinence pads in the toilets and then take and use them from there?

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 19 2019, @03:24AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 19 2019, @03:24AM (#921823) Journal

        The bottom line is not to cooperate with any authorities in any form - never do what they ask and always do what they don't like. The goal would be to crash the current way of life - make it impossible to keep.

        A one week national strike would do it.
        But... good luck with that, not gonna happen.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @04:09PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @04:09PM (#921961)

      Something harder than anything else - people need to stop hating one another.

      In my opinion the division in society has been quite intentionally created for the sake of political control. How many people in 2016 voted for Hillary thinking "Yes, this person genuinely stands for what I believe in and will make a great president."? How many voted for her because the alternative was unthinkable? And the exact same true is those who voted for Trump. Think about what a remarkable achievement (from the point of a despotic government player) that is. Both individuals managed to get tens of millions of people to vote for them, even when they didn't like them one bit. All they had to do was to convince voters that the alternative was Hitler.

      And this pattern will continue for the foreseeable future. It not only keeps us voting for people we hate, but also prevents us from ever working together to get something better. If somebody genuine ever did come forward our divisions would immediately come out trying to appoint him 'friend or enemy.' Oh yeah? What's your view on abortion? Gun rights? Transgenders? These questions are not chosen for their relevance, but for their divisiveness. E.g. last year there were a total of about 14,000 murders [fbi.gov]. "Gun control" invariably focuses on "assault rifles". Rifles, of any sort, accounted for 297 deaths. By contrast 668 people were killed by other people beating them to death with their fists. The real killer is not "assault rifles" but cheap little pistols. And as England has learned, take away the pistols and they'll just go stab each other to death, or throw acid on each other, or whatever other novel way they adapt to kill each other. We have a people problem, not a gun problem. Of course we'll never talk about that though because it's not convenient for politics.

      The point of this is that if you listed every single imaginable issue, all of these issues we place at the top of the queue would generally be pretty much near the bottom. The only reason they're chosen is because they divide people. And that division is used for political control by teaching people to hate and fear the ominous "other side." If we could simply stop hating each other we all have every power in the world to elect whoever we want.

    • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday November 19 2019, @07:35PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday November 19 2019, @07:35PM (#922050) Journal

      Do what?

      Stop voluntarily giving them all your data would be a good first step.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @08:07PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @08:07PM (#922058)

      no. just stop whoring their asses every chance they get. they fund their own prisons, whine about it and then fund it some more. they actively choose to support their masters and are too lazy to learn about any alternatives. they are pitiful slaves and i'm losing sympathy for them on the daily.

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 19 2019, @03:17AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 19 2019, @03:17AM (#921817) Journal

    In other words, if they're so concerned, why don't they do something about it instead of submitting?

    I don't know... because they've been told they live in the land of the free, so they don't feel like they submitted to something? (grin)

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford