The Snowden Effect: 750 Million People Have Taken Steps to Avoid Surveillance

from the peak-indifference dept

Compared to the initial flood of astonishing revelations provided by Edward Snowden in the summer of 2013, things have gone relatively quiet on the NSA/GCHQ leaks front. So an interesting question is: what impact have all these had on ordinary people? That's one of the areas that the CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust explored. Here's what it found: Of those aware of Edward Snowden, 39% have taken steps to protect their online privacy and security as a result of his revelations In a perceptive blog post on the survey, Bruce Schneier notes that the "press is mostly spinning this as evidence that Snowden has not had an effect": I disagree with the "Edward Snowden Revelations Not Having Much Impact on Internet Users" headline. He's having an enormous impact. I ran the actual numbers country by country, combining data on Internet penetration with data from this survey. Multiplying everything out, I calculate that 706 million people have changed their behavior on the Internet because of what the NSA and GCHQ are doing. In fact, he calculates that there are probably another 46 million in countries not covered by the survey, bringing the total number who have "taken steps" to around 750 million. He goes on: It's probably true that most of those people took steps that didn't make any appreciable difference against an NSA level of surveillance, and probably not even against the even more pervasive corporate variety of surveillance. It's probably even true that some of those people didn't take steps at all, and just wish they did or wish they knew what to do. But it is absolutely extraordinary that 750 million people are disturbed enough about their online privacy that they will represent to a survey taker that they did something about it. And he concludes on a hopeful note: we have reached "peak indifference to surveillance." From now on, this issue is going to matter more and more, and policymakers around the world need to start paying attention. Let's hope he's right.

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Filed Under: ed snowden, encryption, gchq, nsa, privacy, snowden effect, surveillance