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."

Comments

They don't understand what it means

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't confuse ignorance with acceptance.

Re:They don't understand what it means

[kilfarsnar]

Don't confuse ignorance with acceptance.

Yes, exactly. I came here to post this. The issue is that people are short-sighted and have limited imagination. Everyone thinks this stuff is done to catch "bad guys". They don't consider themselves a possible target.

People are okay with their employer snooping on their Internet traffic at work. Would they be okay if information gathered during that snooping were a factor in their next performance review? I would hope not. But it's not framed that way and they don't look at it that way.

Land of the free? Home of the brave?

[gstoddart]

So in my lifetime America has gone from "give me liberty or give me death" to a bunch of scared sheep repeating "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear"?

Essentially your liberty and freedom have been traded away to allow your government to watch everything you do as long as they pretend to be keeping you safe?

In 30 years we've gone from Americans making "papers please, comrade" jokes to fully embracing being constantly monitored for their own protection.

That's pretty damned pathetic.

Land of the free, home of the brave ... not so much.

The questions were oddly techincal

[Karmashock]

They should have stuck to very very simple questions if they were talking to a low information survey pool.

Questions like:
Do you want the government reading everyone's email?
Do you mind if corporations know your every activity on the internet?

Avoid the technical crap. Just keep it very very simple.

*drops mic and walks*

Re:first godwin

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not about you.

That's what people don't get. Nobody gives a shit about you. It's about control and power. If I know everything about everyone, it gives me an unbelievable amount of power.

So even if you are as clean as the driven snow, and even if nobody in power ever takes an interest in you, you're still as vulnerable as the rest of us to the type of tyranny this enables. And God forbid you ever do raise the interest of "the authorities," because even if you are as clean as the driven snow (unlikely), they can still find a way to f### you up royally if they know every single thing about you.

But as I said, it's not about you. It's about US. That's why most people don't get it.