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Americans Show 'Surprising Willingness' To Accept Internet Surveillance (dailydot.com)
Researchers from BYU recently took a survey of internet users (PDF), mostly from the U.S., to determine how they balanced opinions of security and privacy. They found, perhaps surprisingly, that over 90% of users are fine with somebody snooping their encrypted traffic, so long as they were informed of the snooping. Most of them also supported legislation requiring notification and/or consent. "Most respondents also agreed that employers should be able to monitor the encrypted Internet connections of employees even without notification or consent, especially when an employee used a company computer. There was less agreement when it came to employees using personal devices; approximately a third of respondents opposed surveillance in that case."
That said, "Despite accepting surveillance in a number of situations, 60 percent of respondents said that they would react negatively if they discovered that a network they currently use employed TLS proxies." The study also found 4.5% of participants were "jaded" toward the state of privacy and security on the internet, feeling that their traffic is already monitored, and that the government would circumvent whatever technologies we put in place to protect it. The researchers say this group "once cared about these issues but has lost all hope and has largely given up on ever achieving a secure world."
That said, "Despite accepting surveillance in a number of situations, 60 percent of respondents said that they would react negatively if they discovered that a network they currently use employed TLS proxies." The study also found 4.5% of participants were "jaded" toward the state of privacy and security on the internet, feeling that their traffic is already monitored, and that the government would circumvent whatever technologies we put in place to protect it. The researchers say this group "once cared about these issues but has lost all hope and has largely given up on ever achieving a secure world."
Americans Show 'Surprising Willingness' To Accept Internet Surveillance
... all pretense.
Offer them a free webcam and $1.99/minute and they'll drop
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
(1) Most people don't understand the full ramifications of breaking encryption. If they knew the 'snoopers' could impersonate them, steal their accounts, etc, they likely would have responded differently.
(2) In no situation was the majority of respondents in favor of 'snooping' without notification
(3) Only in workplaces, schools and libraries were the majority willing to accept 'snooping' without consent (but with notification).
(4) The majority were against government surveillance, even with notification and consent.
IMHO, most things should be legal, with appropriate notification and informed consent of those who might be negatively affected.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Here are the bullet point findings from the actual study:
User opinions toward TLS proxies are nuanced. Many
express concerns about privacy and identity theft from
hackers (75.8%) or surveillance by the government
(70.9%). Yet there is broad, general acceptance of TLS
proxies when used by employers, schools, etc (71.7%).
[Recognizing, no doubt, that organizations that own their networks should be able to operate them as they see fit]
Most participants indicated support for inspection of
encrypted trac as long as they were rst notied of it
(90.7%). Likewise, participants indicated strong sup-
port for legislation requiring notication or consent
(83.2%).
[The 90.7% makes me a little suspicious of the wording the study used. I suspect if the questions dealt with a specific scenario like "Would you oppose or favor the use of a TLS proxy to allow your ISP to capture and read the network traffic (including passwords) between your computer and your financial institution's online banking website?", the acceptance percentage would be drastically lower.]
When asked about specic situations on the second
survey, such as when accessing the Internet at work,
a school, a cafe, or at home, support for TLS prox-
ies ranges from 65% to 90% of participants. This
includes those who accept it, those who desire noti-
cation, and those who desire both notication and
consent. Support for TLS proxies without notication
or consent is strongest at elementary schools (45.9%)
and at businesses when employees are using company-
provided computers (47.9%). [Both minority opinions] In nearly all the sce-
narios we posed, only a small minority of participants
indicate that using TLS proxies is never acceptable.
The exception is when the government is conducting
surveillance, in which case 47.5% say that this is never
acceptable.
We identify personas based on participants’ responses
regarding TLS proxies. Three personas have some
similarity to the Westin categories [21, 13]: the prag-
matic majority (76.5%), the privacy fundamentalist
(17.0%), and the unconcerned (1%). Interestingly, a
fourth category, the jaded persona (5%) opposes prox-
ies but believes there is nothing they can do to stop
the practice.
[I would lump the "jaded persona" in with the "privacy fundamentalist" group since its likely they're people who value privacy but are cynical that significant privacy can be achieved nowdays. This raises the percentage to 22%, which again means the 90% acceptance figure is bs.]
Many users would have a negative opinion toward the
owner of a network that used a TLS proxy (60.8%),
though for some (34.2%) it would depend on who the
owner was and how they were using the technology.
Some would change their behavior on the network, ei-
ther discontinuing to use it (17.2%) or changing which
sites they visited (6%). Though these latter numbers
are somewhat low, these are self-reported through an
open response question, so they are likely conservative.
Read the actual study for yourself and don't rely on the media's misleading reporting of the study. The media always slant's a story to sell a narrative. Assuming the respondents are even aware of what TLS proxies are, the figure of 90% acceptance of them is not correlated with acceptance of "internet surveillance" Indeed, according to the study, 47.5% say that government use of TLS proxies for surveillance is "never acceptable." TFA is rubbish and, frankly, the study is not that great either. I certainly wouldn't say its definitive by any stretch.
I wish we could edit posts on here.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news...
According to Robbins’s lawyer, “the district photographed Robbins 400 times during a 15-day period last fall, sometimes as he slept in bed or was half-dressed. [...] Other times, the district captured screen shots of instant messages or video chats the Harriton High School sophomore had with friends.”
Creepy fucks.