Transcript Privacy in the digital age Public attitudes about personal information and the “veillances” Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet Project 1.25.12 Transportation Research Board Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Lrainie PewInternet.org.

Privacy in the digital age
Public attitudes about personal information
and the “veillances”
Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet Project
1.25.12
Transportation Research Board
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @Lrainie
PewInternet.org
Backdrop for thinking
about transportation
and privacy in the digital
age
Digital Revolution 1
Internet (83%) and Broadband at home (67%)
Home broadband
Home dial-up
80%
71%
70%
60%
67%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
June
2000
April March March April March March March April
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
April
2009
May
2010
May August Jan
2011 2011 2012
Digital Revolution 2
Mobile – 87%
Total U.S.
population:
315.5 million
327.6
Digital Revolution 3
Social networking – 50% of all adults
100%
% of internet users
86%
80%
83%
76%
67%
85%
70% 71%
61%
60%
48%
49%
52%
51%
47%
40%
35%
33%
25%
20%
0%
9%
8%
7%
6%
2005
2006
4%
1%
2007
18-29
13%
11%
7%
2008
30-49
26%
25%
2009
50-64
2010
65+
2011
2012
Location services
• 6% of online adults use “check in” service
like Foursquare/Gowalla
• 9% enable local information in social media
posts like Facebook/Twitter
• 23% use mobile device for directions and
finding out what’s nearby
• ??? have GPS devices (17% in 2007)
• ~10%-15% have electronic toll passes
Traffic - attitudes
• 31% get stuck in traffic at least a couple of
times a week
• 49% say traffic gotten worse in past 5 years
and 54% expect it to get worse in next 5 years
(vs. 38%/28% saying no change)
• 59% would pay higher tolls (HOT lanes) if it
“saved them significant time”
Reason/Rupe December 2001 poll
http://reason.org/files/reason_rupe_transportation_poll.pdf
How Americans feel
about privacy in the
digital age
1) A paradox lies at the heart of
Americans’ views on privacy
• They cherish it as a right and principle …
– 80%-95% say they think it is very important,
depending on question framing
• … yet they often will act in their daily lives in
ways that allow others to monitor and track
them
– 50%-70% do so in their use of credit cards,
preferred customer cards, online activities
Paradox continued
• There is generalized anxiety about the consequences of
inappropriate personal information disclosure….
– 84% concerned about businesses and people they don’t know
getting personal information about them and their families
– 68% fear computer hackers getting their credit card information
– 54% fear getting a computer virus
– 68% of cloud application users ay they would be very concerned
if companies who provided these services analyzed their
information and then displayed ads to them based on their
actions.
• … but not much certainty that actual harm has occurred
Paradox continued
• Many misunderstand what is going on
– 59% mistakenly believe that the existence of a
privacy policy means their info is kept private
– 64% have never searched for info about how to
protect their privacy online
• People care about privacy, but don’t opt out
• Majorities don’t know tracking and sharing
policies of websites
Joseph Turow, Americans Online Privacy: The System is Broken
“http://www.securitymanagement.com/archive/library/Anneberg_privacy1003.pdf
2) Privacy actually means three things
to Americans
• Anonymity: In general, they are somewhat less
concerned about that in the networked age. Tied to
interactions with others.
• Confidentiality: They want their data-minders to
give them control over the use of their personal
information. Tied to corporations and government.
• Security: They want data-minders to protect them
from data breaches and identity theft. Tied to ways
others can cause them harm.
3) Not all people feel the same about
privacy problems
Privacy
Fundamentalist
Privacy
Pragmatist
Privacy
Unconcerned
[1]
1999
2003
25%
26%
54%
64%
22%
10%
IBM-Harris Multi-National Consumer Privacy Study,1999
Public Records and the Responsible Use of Information, Opinion Research Corporation and Dr. Alan F. Westin, for the Center for Social and
Legal Research, sponsored by ChoicePoint, Inc., 2000
[2]
4) Not all information is created equal
• Most protective of …
–Health information
–Financial information
–Children’s information
–Personal and family secrets
• Most everything else is on the table for
negotiation
5) Context matters
• More people are willing to forego some privacy if
the monitoring is aimed at fighting things like …
–
–
–
–
–
child predators
terrorists
other criminals
making streets of bad drivers
to make public places safer
----
• Comparisons of privacy vs. conferred benefits
often see people favoring the benefits
6) Three “veillances” affect people’s sense
of what is happening around them
Surveillance – powerful
watch the ordinary
Sousveillance – ordinary
watch powerful
Coveillance – peers stalk
peers
7) Reputation management is a new
part of people’s privacy calculations
• 57% of online Americans search for information
about themselves
– 69% have searched for info about others they are
going to meet
• 44% have taken steps to limit information about
themselves
• 71% of young adults who use social networking
services changed their privacy settings
– 41% of these SNS users check picture tags and ask for
changes
Implications for transportation
• Boundary between public and private is shifting in
mobile age
• People would like clear and simple explanations of
what’s being done
• They have an instinctive preference for “opt in”
systems
• They like convenience and efficiency
• They worry about what can be held against them
and want rules to spell out how abusers will be
punished
Thank you!