An interesting new survey from our chums at Big Brother Watch
shows just how differently European citizens feel about their online privacy,
even though the privacy laws around Europe are broadly the same.
Of course the laws are not identical. But they’re not hugely
different. Most of the differences are administrative in nature and are of
limited interest to anyone other than the data protection anoraks.
But what is surprising is how much people’s attitudes to
privacy varies – and I’ve been wondering whether identical European privacy
laws (which is what those promoting a Regulation want) would alter attitudes to
privacy to the extent that the citizens thought more along the same lines.
And I really doubt it.
The chart I’ve shown today comes from a
survey, recently carried out for Big Brother Watch by that reputable research organisation,
ComRes. People were asked: “How
concerned, if at all, are you about your privacy online?”
Evidently, Spanish people are most concerned about their
privacy online, while Germans are the least concerned. The chart indicates
whether respondents have no opinion (grey); are not at all concerned (dark
green); not very concerned (light green); fairly concerned (pink); or very
concerned (red).
But does this chart actually tell us much? I’d be happy to
bet that it would look pretty similar if the question had been changed to: “How
concerned, if at all, are you about your national economy?”
Are we to take it, from these statistics, that a generation
of Spanish and French regulators have done an awful job to uphold decent
privacy standards in their respective countries, and that only concerted action
from the Commission can save Europe from a privacy catastrophe? I think not.
Instead, what I think the survey is shows us is that there
are different cultural attitudes towards privacy, despite the work that
regulators have done to encourage and cajole data controllers to improve their
data handling standards. The current rules have, after all, been in place for a
mighty long time.
So, in my humble opinion, people have views on privacy that derive
more heavily from national cultures than on the basis of national laws.
And if, as is my view, a European Regulation is unlikely to result in
a narrowing of European attitudes towards privacy, then not a lot will be lost
if there is no Regulation.
Source:
http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/home/2013/06/new-research-global-attitudes-to-privacy-online.html#more-5479
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