Opinions on Internet Privacy Graphs
Notes:
- Privacy and anonymity go hand-in-hand, but exactly how does the Web community feel about the specific issues
surrounding privacy on the Internet? The below question asked people to rate their agreement/disagreement on a 5-point scale, with '1' representing strong disagreement, '5' representing strong agreement and '3' neutrality.
- Nearly everyone feels strongly that people ought to be able to have private communications over the Internet
(4.70 Seventh vs. 4.70 Sixth). People also seriously value the anonymous nature of the Internet (4.47 Seventh vs. 4.46 Sixth). Most people prefer anonymous payment systems (3.90 Seventh vs. 3.93 Sixth) and feel that the Internet needs new laws to protect privacy (3.81 Seventh vs. 3.79 Sixth). People tend to agree somewhat that they ought to be able to take on multiple roles/aliases on the Internet (3.63 Seventh vs. 3.67 Sixth). While the average response value for the use of key escrow systems indicates neutrality (3.09 Seventh vs. 3.09 Sixth), the distribution of responses was bimodal, with nearly half of the respondents stating agreement with a key escrow system and half of the respondents stating disagreement.
- In keeping pace with the evolution of data privacy issues, we added two new questions to the Seventh survey.
The first posited the statement: stronger laws are necessary to protect children's privacy online. Sentiment for
this question is slightly above neutrality (3.27), but with a strong bimodal distribution (i.e., many in favor and many opposed). The second questions made the statement: some content does not belong on the Internet. This statement averaged out to mildly neutral 2.79, but again, had a strong bimodal distribution.
- There is considerable consensus across the strata on the issue of anonymity. Differences did occur between European and US users on the need for new laws to protect privacy (3.59 European vs. 3.79 US). This is most likely
the result of stronger privacy laws in Europe than the US. Females are more likely to prefer a key escrow systems (3.34) than men (2.89). The 19-25 yr. old generation places more importance on anonymity overall and the ability to assume multiple aliases than the elder generation (3.87 19-25 vs 3.32 50+). The younger generation also felt
more strongly that new laws are necessary to protect online privacy.
For more information or to submit comments:
send e-mail to www-survey@cc.gatech.edu.
GVU's WWW Surveying Team
Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0280