Eight-hundred people volunteered for data privacy surveys earlier this year and, although they broke down based on age, gender, race and ethnicity, 35 percent were between 50 and 64 years old. Men were much more likely to cite privacy concerns about internet data than women — 77 percent of men were concerned, compared with 39 percent of women — according to the survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.
People who are most concerned about privacy are also the ones who make the most money, with higher incomes and lower rates of poverty. But no matter how rich or poor people are, the majority of people think that protecting their privacy is important.
At least 50 percent of both Republicans and Democrats gave data privacy “a great deal” of importance. Among the percent that are concerned about privacy, nearly half expressed a “fair amount” of concern, with just 11 percent expressing no interest at all.
But data privacy didn’t appear to rank high among a group of other controversial and time-consuming issues, even though there is concern that people might be sharing too much with the government, including their phone numbers, addresses and credit card information. Nearly 60 percent of people said it was important to protect their personal information from foreign governments, such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the Syrian regime or Russian authorities. But privacy issues appeared to take a back seat in comparison to, say, sex discrimination, which has drawn a high level of public concern in recent years. Nearly 60 percent of Americans were concerned that they could have been discriminated against because of their race, ethnicity or gender in some area of life.
On the other hand, 63 percent of people said it was important to protect the “U.S. Constitution,” a list that included abortion, religious freedom and “illegal immigration.”
Prohibiting the National Security Agency from mass-surveillance was a top issue. On protecting the United States, data privacy topped the list, followed by the “War on Terror” and immigration. There was much more familiarity with the war on terror than with other concerns. Some 77 percent said that protecting the United States against terrorism was important, compared with only 54 percent who felt the same way about protecting the Constitution. And 32 percent were concerned about national security over privacy, compared with 18 percent who feel similarly about privacy protection.
And a clear majority of Americans are in favor of the concept of privacy. Nearly three-quarters of Americans said it was important to protect the privacy of their digital communications, regardless of whether they lived in a city, small town or suburb. Americans have also shown higher levels of support for laws that may protect people from having personal information stolen — like a proposed bill to give residents of Maryland the ability to request that their personal information be erased from websites.
The study also looked at how privacy is valued by different groups. A majority of black Americans thought it was important for the government to establish voluntary rules to protect online privacy, despite their lack of trust in government. The study found that young people — particularly those ages 18 to 34 — were the most concerned about privacy, while some experts have suggested that young people are being disproportionately hurt by online privacy-violating technologies, but that it was unclear why.
The Pew research was conducted by telephone in August and early September with a national sample of adults.
— WND