CHAPTER 2: PRIVACY
2.34.
2.35.
Such a change in attitudes is less apparent in the UK:
(a)
Studies have ranked the UK as one of the countries least concerned by
government “spying” on internet and mobile communications. Along with
France, the UK had the lowest proportion of citizens who were opposed to it
(44%) in a global study in 2015.73
(b)
Indeed, a number of studies showed that most people had already assumed
that the type of action alleged in the Snowden Documents was undertaken, and
only 27% were of the view that it was too intrusive.74
(c)
Some recent studies have shown support for the use of data to predict and
prevent crimes,75 though others have shown low levels of trust in the UK
Government to use their data appropriately.76
One impact of the leaks in the Snowden Documents in the UK is that they damaged
people’s belief in the safety of their data; with most believing that neither government
nor private companies can now keep their data completely secure.77 But this has not
translated into support for the leaks: in a recent study, only 38% of those polled
believed that “leaks by Julian Assange and Edward Snowden” were justified.78
Is privacy dead?
2.36.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, stated in 2010 that privacy is no longer a
social norm.79 Others have gone further still, declaring it to be dead.80 In the words
of a recent newspaper article:
“We have come to the end of privacy; our private lives, as our grandparents
would have recognised them, have been winnowed away to the realm of the
shameful and the secret. ... Insidiously, through small concessions that
mounted up over time, we have signed away rights and privileges that other
generations fought for, undermining the very cornerstones of our personalities
in the process. While outposts of civilisation fight pyrrhic battles, unplugging
themselves from the web – “going dark” – the rest of us have come to accept
that the majority of our social, financial and even sexual interactions take place
over the internet and that someone, somewhere, whether state, press or
corporation, is watching.”81
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
Amnesty.
See TNS-BMRB.
Ipsos MORI, PAS.
Ipsos MORI: RSS; 13% had high trust in the British Government compared to 46% with low trust.
Ipsos MORI: ESRC/ONS.
TNS-BMRB. Interestingly, there was a gender bias highlighted by this study, with more men than women
saying that the revelations would do more harm than good.
“Privacy no longer a social norm, says Facebook founder”, The Guardian, 11 Jan 2011.
E.g. J. Morgan, “Privacy is completely and utterly dead, and we killed it”, Forbes.com, 19 August 2014.
A. Preston, “The death of privacy”, The Observer 3 August 2014.
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