28 Nov Study Suggests Australians Willing to Trade Privacy for Security
A recent paper by the University of Sydney showed that a majority of Australians would willingly agree to compromise their privacy if asked with a question framed in a particular manner.
In a paper called Digital Rights in Australia, respondents were asked if they considered the government’s requirement of telcos to keep phone call information a breach of privacy. Initially, 80% of the respondents agreed. However, the number dropped to around 47% when asked whether they opposed or agreed to the accessing of their contact information and web history by security agencies.
The report said that even though privacy is important to Australians, it can be forsaken in the face of security fears, and that politicians can simply use terms such as “national security” and “anti-terrorism” to get support for policies such as data retention.
Source: ZDNet
