Americans worried about Facebook, not NSA, poll finds

[SecularMotion]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn … social media sites encourage users to create a digital trail of life events. But a recent survey shows that Americans might be having second thoughts about uploading details of their lives to the Internet.

Internet users say that their pictures, birth dates, e-mail addresses, and cellphone numbers are available online, but what concerns those surveyed the most is the privacy of their e-mails and online searches, two of the items hardest to keep from Internet companies.

Eighty-six percent of Internet users have taken steps online to remove, or mask their digital footprints – ranging from clearing cookies to encrypting their e-mail, according to a Pew Research report released on Thursday. Most Internet users – 59 percent – do not think it is possible to be completely anonymous online.

“Users clearly want the option of being anonymous online and increasingly worry that this is not possible,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. “Their concerns apply to an entire ecosystem of surveillance.”

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2013/0905/Online-privacy-Americans-worried-about-Facebook-not-NSA-poll-finds

[Historic NY]

1. Yup, they also encourage you to flip in your friends....

they want your contacts lists. I hate "linked in" people send me stuff for it all the time, like their almost insisting I join them.

[Snake Plissken]

2. Not surprising, if it comes down to trusting The Government, or trusting Wall St

it's pretty much a no-brainer

[Ash_F]

8. Those are the same people these days. /nt

[99th_Monkey]

3. "“There is a possibility that our questions were answered the way they were because

“There is a possibility that our questions were answered the way
they were because people were thinking about their day-to-day
activities,” <-- Pew guy.

I think he's right. If people were asked these questions in a more
over-arching way, from stand point of good public policy, not private
personal preferences and anonymity; I think results would be
quite different.

I think people are generally concerned about being surveilled by
ANYone, public or private, for ANY reason. This unfortunate
and misleading parsing of words by Pew is a shameful attempt
to give the NSA a fig leaf.

[sendero]

4. There is an easy solution to that.

.... don't post anything on Facebook that you wouldn't want your mom, your dad, your pastor or priest or your employer or any law enforcement entity to see.

I realize that rules out a lot of stuff but that's the solution.

[leftyladyfrommo]

5. You would think that people would realize

that it's not wise to post confidential stuff on the internet. It can all be hacked.

I never post anything that I don't care if the whole world knows.

When I was little everybody had a party line for their phone line. Private lines were available but were considered too expensive for most people. Anyone could listen in to your phone conversations. Anyone on the party line could just pick up their phone and listen in. The operators would listen in.

This stuff is not new.

[ramapo]

6. Agreed

The NSA could give a rat's ass hair about us. They are not looking for me or you (unless you're plotting to do something really bad).

However, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Apple, and on the list goes sure do care about us. They collect all our data and they use it. To sell us stuff, to track us, and yes, to haunt us. All our crap is out there for current and prospective employers to sift through and sift through it they do.

This is far more damaging to our freedom to live our lives with some degree of privacy then anything the NSA might do.

[PSPS]

7. You're kidding yourself

Even if the NSA "could (sic) give a rat's ass about us," they will still have everything you've ever uttered or written or talked about stored away for future reference and use. That's why they're doing this extralegal surveillance of everyone. Plus, Facebook, Google and the rest do not have the power of the government to rob you of your freedom.

The headline, of course, is a canard. "Americans" are, indeed, quite "worried" about the NSA.