People trust NSA more than Google, survey says
People trust NSA more than Google, survey says
In a result consistent with previous polling, a new poll
has respondents claiming they're more concerned about Google seeing all their
private data than the government.
by Chris Matyszczyk October 28, 2014 4:49 PM PDT
People claim to trust Google less than they trust the
NSA. Are they telling the truth?
People don't always say what they think. Especially in
business and love.
Please, therefore, consider this question: whom would you
trust more with your private data: the NSA, a company like Google, or your mom?
I ask because I'm looking at the results of a survey,
conducted between October 9 and 12, that asked just that. It asked simple
questions, to which its sponsors hoped to get simple answers.
The results went like this. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being
"I am shivering uncontrollably with fear") the idea of Google or a
similar concern having access to all your private data got a concerned score of
7.39.
The idea of the NSA having its eyes and hands all over
you? 7.06. What about your boss snooping? That merited a mere 6.85. While the
notion of your parents knowing it all got a 5.93.
Of the options open to the respondents, they were most
relaxed about their spouse or significant other seeing their everyday warts.
This idea scored a mere 4.55.
The survey was created by Survata, a company whose
purpose is to interrupt content by asking people to complete a survey before
they get the whole content. Survata claims in its methodological explanation
that it carefully vets those it thinks might offer insincerity.
I wonder, however. If these results are to be believed,
then humanity is rife with those who speak out of several sides of their mouth.
On the one hand, we claim to fear Google most, yet we allow it, Facebook and
the like to crawl over our daily routines and information like summer flies
enjoying a rancid grapefruit.
Yet the results are rather consistent with a Washington
Post-Pew Research Center poll of last year. It revealed that the majority of
Americans are perfectly accepting of the NSA tracking their phone records. In
that survey, 45 percent even said they thought the NSA's intrusions should go
further.
What's interesting about the Survata poll is that those
surveyed were predominantly young. Well, ish. There were 2,566 respondents, all
from the US, aged between 13 and 44. Some 59.8 percent were female, 40.2
percent were male. Just over half were aged between 13 and 24.
How odd that those who appear to be most comfortable
sharing everything with everyone claim that they distrust the likes of Google
more than anyone.
I asked Survata's co-founder, Chris Kelly, what he
thought were the reasons. He told me: "Survata was surprised to see
respondents said they'd be more upset with a company like Google seeing their
personal data than the NSA. We did not ask respondents for the reasons or
motivations behind their answers; so we can only conjecture based on our
previous research. One guess is that respondents assume the NSA is only looking
for 'guilty' persons when scouring personal data, whereas a company like Google
would use personal data to serve ads or improve their own products."
Could it be that on some subliminal level we know what's
going on and we just can't help ourselves? Could it be that we want to care
more about privacy, but the sheer free ease offered by the likes of Google and
Facebook is too much to resist?
It's not as if these companies are excessively shy about
what they do. Who could forget these sturdy words offered by Erin Egan,
Facebook's chief privacy officer: "We want to be really, really clear that
whenever you give us information, we're going to take it."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg insisted that after Edward
Snowden's revelations, his company and Google suffered a diminution of trust.
Perhaps they never really had that much. And perhaps
people are just too self-regarding to care.
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