Pew has a new poll out on Americans’ attitudes toward privacy, and it is full of interesting findings. A New York Times blog piece on the poll focused on the so-called “privacy paradox”—people’s seeming willingness to share personal information despite their professed concern over privacy (more on that below). But for me the most striking finding is that Americans’ confidence in the privacy and security of electronic communications is very low, with over half thinking that email, text messages, chat, and social media are “not at all” or “not very secure.” In too many ways, these beliefs are well-founded, and yet these are the mediums that Americans are using more and more to communicate in their everyday lives.
One problem is that if people don’t have confidence that they can communicate privately, that will leave many feeling uneasy and insecure in their communications. That is not how people should go through life in a free, democratic society. When asked if they feel they do enough to protect their own privacy online, 61% feel they “would like to do more.” For anyone with an understanding of how limited our privacy is, it’s impossible to go online without being haunted by that feeling. And that lack of confidence will inevitably drive people to seek other means of communicating when they feel they must have privacy, and therefore reduce the societal value of these communications channels.
Read Full Article »