The privacy paradox: caring without acting
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More and more people are saying they care about their online privacy. The result of a big study on privacy done by the Pew Research Center in 2019 in America shows that “Majorities think their personal data is less secure now, that data collection poses more risks than benefits, and they believe it is not possible to go through daily life without being tracked”. You can check the report yourself down below. To quote a larger part from the report:
“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.”
The largest amount of people (62-63%) in the research think it’s not possible to use modern technology without every bit of data being collected by corporations and governments. This is what I call “black and white thinking”. If you want to be complete private: throw away your phone, tablet, computer, and modern car end go live in a forest, where there’s no camera’s. BUT: if you still want to be using your phone (and other devices), then there are A LOT of different things you can do to actually create way LESS data and be way MORE private.
The same research shows that 79% of the questioned say that they are very or somewhat concerned about how companies are using the data they collect about them, while 64% say they have the same level of concern about government data collection. It’s not that people don’t care, people do! This is what I call the privacy paradox: caring without acting. We know that there is a problem, we just don’t know how to deal with it. The results of this poll show that there is a big knowledge gap within the general population about what’s actually possible. And that’s exactly why I created this course: to teach you how to do this, so you can go on and help other people doing it, or to do it for them.
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https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/