Desire for online privacy in the USA and Germany

Desire for online privacy in the USA

The US is certainly a country with a huge online presence. But do US citizens actually care about the security of their private data when surfing the web? To give a fact based and well differentiated answer to that question, we need to take a look at the opinions and behaviors of all US citizens having an internet access.
Starting with their opinions when asked by the Pew research Center[1]:

• 80 % said they should be concerned by government spying.
• 80 % worry about advertisers accessing their social media posts.
• 70 % worry about the government accessing their social media posts.
• 90 % feel like they lost control over their private data online.
• 20 % feel secure sharing private data via social media.

Young people are just as likely to be concerned as old people, meaning it’s not a generation issue.

Those numbers clearly show that Americans certainly are concerned with online privacy. To sum it all up roughly 80% of Americans are concerned. But concern alone doesn’t really mean much. After all, one might argue that there are certain advantages to mass data collection. But since only 33% of Americans appreciate the possible benefits of online serve data collection that point doesn’t really cut it.

So now let’s take a look at how those concerned 80 % actually influence online privacy in reality:

One of the biggest milestones against mass online privacy especially in the US was the so called “USA PATRIOT Act”. This act was signed into law by George W. Bush in 2001. In 2005 George W. Bush was then reelected president of the USA.

This shows that despite those existing concerned 80%, supporting online privacy is certainly not necessary to be successful as a politician.

Of course, it may be possible for Bush to be voted president despite acting against the desire for online privacy as people might consider other aspects of politics more relevant.

So finally, we will take a look at what Americans do themselves to achieve online privacy:

To achieve online privacy, there is one tool which is almost without alternative: TOR. Being the by far most commonly used privacy surfing software and pretty much the only affordable way to achieve online privacy, a look at the percentage of people in a country using TOR can offer some insight to their desire for privacy:

According to the TOR metrics[2] 17 % of Americans who use the internet use TOR. In international comparison, that number is very impressive, making the US the country with the highest percentage of TOR users in the World. Considering that there may be some people willing to pay the money for a highly anonymous VPN server, roughly 20 % use online privacy software.

So finally we can sum it all up:

When it comes to online privacy in the USA,

• 20 % don’t care
• 60 % just care
• 20 % care and act

Desire for online privacy in Germany

Germany is one of the leading countries in laws protecting citizens in online privacy. The Federal Constitutional Court in the Census Decision of 1983 stated that personal data from an individual cannot be collected unless it is authorized by state or by consent of the individual­­­­.[3] In 1990 Germany passed the Federal Data Protection Act which prevents the government from processing citizens' data without the consent of the individual.[3]

With these strict the data collection laws, does that mean Germans feel secure with their online privacy?

ComRes[4] did research on the attitudes towards online privacy in 9 countries including Germany:

• 46% said they had a concern with online privacy- the lowest of the 9 countries.
• 79% said they had a concern with online privacy in total average of the 9 countries.

Consumer Openness Index[5] did a report with internet users from the UK, U.S. and Germany:

• 23% in Germany said they would make no financial transactions online.
• 23% in Germany deactivated their Facebook accounts due to the privacy policies and terms changing.

Both statistics were the largest in Germany in comparison with the other two countries.

In 2010, controversy arose at the idea of “geo-data services” which would identify individuals and their property, with Google’s Street View as the primary idea to be taken throughout the world[6]. Google offered to allow homeowners to request that the photos taken from their home be pixelated[6]. German privacy advocates pushed the idea further; Google would have to explicitly ask for permission from the individuals before the photos could be published.[6]

A research project was conducted by Dr. Hanna Krasnova and Paula Kift concerning the threats of specific sources when using the internet[7]:

• 19.6 % said marketing companies.
• 9.4 % said hackers and criminals.
• 7.9 % said third parties.
• 4.6 % said government.

Also taken in the research project was the vague and anxious attitude towards control and privacy.[7]

• 18.3 % said a general loss of control.
• 9.1 % said a general loss of privacy.

83 % of people said they would not change their behavior on Facebook, even though 17.2 % said Facebook was a large threat when using the internet.[7]

Germans seem to feel more secure with online privacy than that of Americans. In the United States more people are concerned with government spying than in Germany. Overall in both countries there is a concern with online privacy but there is a lack of effort to obtain the security of the individual’s desires.

Sources:

1. Concern by Pew research Center
2. Tor metrics by Tor
3. The Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/law/help/online-privacy-law/germany.php
4. Big Brother Watch: http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/2013/06/new-research-global-attitudes-to-privacy-online/
5. Ox: www.open-xchange.com/announcements/17
6. The Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/17103679
7. Internet Policy Review: http://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/online-privacy-concerns-and-legal-assurance-user-perspective