RE: State of Social Web Update -- bin the surveys!

When it comes to privacy, survey data and results from opinion probing
should be consumed with extreme care. There is a proverbial divergence
between stated concerns and actual privacy action, notably concerning
self-protection. For instance, the Eurobarometer indicates that “Two-thirds
of survey participants said they were concerned as to whether organisations
that held their personal data handled this data appropriately.” and that
“nearly all respondents said it was true that they had an option to oppose
such use of their personal information”. Unfortunately, the entire survey is
skewed by social desirability bias ... How can people say they had been
phished if research in laboratories shows they cannot even tell phishing
sites and the real thing apart? 

So, if prompted, consumers state strong but vague concerns about privacy and
data protection. But lack of technical education, inadequate privacy
controls, bounded rationality etc. may prevent these concerns from
translating into privacy-enhancing action.

 

Sören

 

From: public-xg-socialweb-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-xg-socialweb-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Melvin Carvalho
Sent: 20 July 2010 17:01
To: Carine Bournez
Cc: Tom Morris; cperey@perey.com; Harry Halpin; public-xg-socialweb@w3.org
Subject: Re: State of Social Web Update

 

 

On 17 July 2010 00:09, Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com> wrote:

 

On 17 July 2010 00:05, Carine Bournez <carine@w3.org> wrote:

Hi,


On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 02:15:35PM -0400, Tom Morris wrote:
> I agree with Christine.  I'm very concerned about privacy, but I also
> recognize that the general population does not.

It's not true that people are not concerned about privacy, but they
are not sufficiently aware of the risks.


Regarding risks:

Summary of additional findings:

The Webroot survey uncovered that a significant number of people have fallen
prey to criminals who target social network users for attack:

*	Nearly a quarter of respondents (22.4 percent) were victims of a
phishing attempt to steal their social network password. 
*	About one in six (16 percent) reported a malware infection in the
past year that originated from a social networking site.
*	One in nine reported at least one of their social network accounts
had been compromised or hijacked.

 


And if you thought the phishing was bad ....

When asked if they had ever read a partner’s Facebook messages, e-mail or
other electronic correspondence, the men answered thusly:

*	Yes, but only with her knowledge: 23.51%
*	Yes, but only because it was open on her desktop: 13.32%
*	Yes, I broke into her e-mail or messaging account: 8.90%
*	No, but I would if I suspected she was up to something: 21.54%
*	No, I respect her privacy: 32.73%

http://mashable.com/2010/07/20/askmen-survey/


 


>
> Sure, and I bet they all would say they are deeply concerned about
> world hunger too, but the editorial (yes, it's an editorial calling
> for more action on privacy), also says:
>
>   "So why are we saying one thing, but doing another when it comes to
privacy?"
>
> and
>
>   "If half of us are that concerned about privacy, it should stand to
> reason that we would do something about it. However, rather than
> leaving these networks that cause so much concern, people continue to
> sign up: Facebook will be announcing its 500 million user milestone
> any day now, and Foursquare has reached 1.8 million users in its first
> year alone."
>
> It's fine to say that we need to worry about privacy now so that some
> when the general population does begin to care the appropriate
> technologies are available, but I don't see the data to support the
> statement that most users care in any concrete way.

You can't say that people don't care because you found 500 million
users on facebook. There are also lots of people who are not on
facebook and nobody asks them why. Those studies are biaised by design.