PRIVACY, SURVEILLANCE, TRUST AND REGULATION: Online privacy: implications of a Canadian case study

摘要

The paper presented in this issue as part of the series on Privacy, Surveillance, Trust and Regulation is both disheartening and challenging as far as the protection of privacy online is concerned. Ana Viseu, Andrew Clement and Jane Aspinall's Canadian respondents in their 'Everyday Internet' project case-study are passive or resigned in the face of what privacy advocates would argue are serious invasions of privacy. These members of the public are often annoyed by the argument that they should be concerned with 'privacy' as defined by those who are actively involved in high-level policy debates. The authors acknowledge that a case study of a few individuals cannot be decisive in gauging public attitudes, but there is ample survey evidence in many countries that shows that there are a great number of people who share the views of these Canadians. Viseu and her colleagues, however, point up the extent to which people simply do not know enough about what happens to their personal data, so their complacency is not surprising when they consider the benefits they feel they gain through online transactions, and when they believe that they can adopt coping strategies to minimize whatever privacy dangers they think there might be. Such ignorance may not be bliss, but for those who are understandably bemused by the abstract concept of 'privacy' and simply want to negotiate their way in 'cyberspace', it seems to suffice.