SAN FRANCISCO - Americans overwhelmingly think they've lost control of how their personal information is collected and used by companies. And a majority say they are concerned about the government's monitoring of phone calls and Internet communication, a survey released Wednesday finds.
The research was done by the non-partisan Pew Research Center's Internet Project. It focused on American's perceptions of privacy and online behavior
after Edward Snowden revealed the extent of U.S. government surveillance programs last year.The survey "puts some hard numbers behind the suspicion that many of us have had, that surveillance by NSA has really impacted the American mindset on privacy," said Marc Rotenberg with the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington D.C.
The Pew survey found that Americans simply don't trust companies when it comes to their personal information — 91% either agreed or strongly agreed that consumers have lost control.
They trust the government only slightly less — 80% agree or strongly agree that Americans should be concerned about the government's monitoring of their communication.
There was a universal lack of confidence in the privacy of everyday methods of communication.
Asked about landlines, cell phones, email, text messages, chat and social media, not one was considered "very secure" by a majority of respondents.
Landlines were ranked as most secure, with 16% saying they felt "very secure" using them. Just 9% felt that way on cell phones, 7% texting, 5% emailing, 4% using chat and only 2% using social media.
That lack of trust in the privacy of their daily interactions represents a major transition in how Americans feel about their lives, said Sara Kiesler, a professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa.
"For a long time, people thought 'Well, I have nothing to hide.' But now they know that's not in fact true. You do have things you want to hide. Whether it's your credit card information or what prescription drugs you take or your nephew's jail terms. People don't want their lives to be an open book," she said.
People didn't accept the argument that by collecting information about their habits, companies could serve them more efficiently — 61% said it wasn't worth it.
But there was a disconnect in that 55% were happy to share at least some information about themselves in order to use online services for free.
One somewhat surprising finding was that older and younger Americans are equally concerned about privacy.
One somewhat surprising finding was that older and younger Americans are equally concerned about privacy.
It's commonly said that "digital natives," young people who've grown up with the Internet, simply don't care as much about their privacy as older generations.
That wasn't the case in the survey, which included 607 adults over the age of 18. In fact, 32% of young adults between 18 and 29 had asked someone to correct or remove information about them online compared with 17% of people between 30 to 49.
"We assume that because young people participate online, they must not care about privacy. But what they really care about is abuses of power," said Danah Boyd, who researches online youth culture at Microsoft's research division.
Younger Americans are just more adept at shifting to a more private communication method depending on what the topic is.
"Sure I'm going to tell you what I had for breakfast. Who cares? All it means is that I just woke up," Boyd said. "But if they have something really embarrassing to share, they're going to choose a safer place to share it."
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