While I was semi-disconnected from the grid over the holidays, one of the things I missed was an article in the Washington Post detailing the results of a poll on Americans’ privacy attitudes. The article, which contains lots of “man on the street” interviews with a range of views on privacy (including the usual “I have nothing to hide” viewpoint), correctly points out that in the interpersonal realm, “there are not yet widely accepted norms about who may watch whom and when and where tracking is justified.”

But the main takeaway from the poll is that Americans express very high levels of concern about the threat to their privacy from social networks, cellphone providers, web sites “such as Google, Amazon or eBay” and the NSA. Roughly 70% said they were concerned about each, with only around 30% not at all or “not too” concerned. It is interesting that there are no significant differences between Americans’ concern over government and private-sector spying. Perhaps the reality of the Surveillance-Industrial Complex is sinking in.

A couple other observations and comments on the poll: