In the pre-Internet days, before the wider availability of the World Wide Web and the social media phenomenon that led to millions of people sharing their identity and private details online, there was the archetypal ‘nosy neighbour’, the curtain twitcher.
The massive amount of data accessible through the World Wide Web (the amount of data in the world was estimated to be 44 zettabytes at the dawn of 2020) now provides an opportunity to spy on people, to scale.
As what data of interest about other people pertains to the Internet, a useful set of questions to explore is – what, or who, are we curious about?
More specifically, we can extend this to what would people most want to know (or not know), about themselves, and also, given human curiosity, about someone else they know?
An answer of sorts is at hand. In a new survey of 1,002 U.S. consumers, the company NordVPN found that keeping their personal information safe on the Internet is the key to happiness online.
This is borne out by 65 percent of respondent stating they would most be afraid of having their financial data accessed by a hacker (or malicious third party). Following this, 43 percent of those captured by the survey said texts and emails.
Beneath this, 40 percent said, “social media accounts, 36 percent said, “medical information”, 22 percent said, “career information”, 18 precent said, “sex life” and 16 percent said, “criminal records” were big hacking concerns.
The extent of this is based on how much people have previously shared online.
The full list is:
| What would people most want others to know, or not know, about themselves? | KNOW | NOT KNOW |
| · Financial information | 9% | 53% |
| · Medical information | 14% | 35% |
| · Personal texts and emails | 10% | 34% |
| · Social media accounts | 22% | 28% |
| · Criminal record | 15% | 24% |
| · Career record | 16% | 18% |
| · Job/work information | 9% | 23% |
| · Dating and Sex life details | 6% | 32% |
However, when it comes to someone else there is a level of interest in knowing things about work colleagues or someone living close by or a distant family member.
| What would people most want to know, or not know, about someone else they know? | KNOW | NOT KNOW |
| · Financial information | 24% | 24% |
| · Medical information | 16% | 28% |
| · Personal texts and emails | 18% | 23% |
| · Social media accounts | 31% | 21% |
| · Criminal record | 41% | 14% |
| · Career record | 18% | 18% |
| · Job/work information | 18% | 17% |
| · Dating and Sex life details | 21% | 29% |
In this context, information people want deleted from the internet includes:
- 26% – Embarrassing moments
- 26% – Old dating/social media profiles
- 24% – Unflattering photos/videos
- 23% – Previous employment history
There is an obvious hypocrisy here. People are interested in knowing things about others while also seeking to safeguard the same information about themselves (albeit on the basis there is a concern about hackers obtaining said information…although the same level of concern seems likely when it comes to those we might work with or live close by to).
The survey also probed how much people would be willing to pay for online anonymity. Here, 31 percent pf respondents said they’d pay up to $100, 12% percent would pay between $101 – $500, 8 percent would pay between $500 – $1,000, and 3 percent would pay more than $1000 to be anonymous online.
The price of anonymity, in the face of past indiscretions, it seems, is set very low.
