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11/16/14

Why the internet has turned us into hypocrites - by John Naughton

Back in the heyday of the old Soviet Union, a phrase evolved to describe gullible western intellectuals who came to visit Russia and failed to notice the human and other costs of building a communist utopia. The phrase was “useful idiots” and it applied to a good many people who should have known better.

I now propose a new, analogous term more appropriate for the age in which we live: useful hypocrites. That’s you and me, folks, and it’s how the masters of the digital universe see us. And they have pretty good reasons for seeing us that way. They hear us whingeing about privacy, security, surveillance, etc, but notice that despite our complaints and suspicions, we appear to do nothing about it. In other words, we say one thing and do another, which is as good a working definition of hypocrisy as one could hope for.

This sounds harsh, I know, but the data supports it. At the moment, much of that data comes from the US, but I don’t think things are all that different over here. Some of the most reliable information about people’s online behaviour comes from the Pew internet and American life project, which conducts regular polling about Americans’ use of the internet. Last Wednesday, the project published the findings of a survey on public perceptions of privacy and security in the post-Edward Snowden era. And what the researchers found makes sobering reading.

The findings were neatly summarised by the New York Times as “Americans say they want privacy, but act as if they don’t”. Or to put it less succinctly: “Americans say they are deeply concerned about privacy on the web and their cellphones. They say they do not trust internet companies or the government to protect it. Yet they keep using the services and handing over their personal information.”

Read more: Why the internet has turned us into hypocrites | Technology | The Observer

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