Internet improves personal lives, but privacy is still a concern

According to a study conducted by Microsoft, 74% of those questioned say the internet at-large has had a positive effect on how much things cost. 68% of respondents say the internet has had a positive effect on our ability to start a new business. Also, 65% say productivity has been positively affected by the internet.

However, findings reveal that the concern about privacy jumped five points. In 11 of the 12 countries surveyed, with India the only exception, respondents say that technology’s effect on privacy was mostly negative.

Majorities of respondents in every country but India and Indonesia say current legal protections for users of personal technology are insufficient, and only in those two countries do most respondents feel fully aware of the types of personal information collected about them.

Majorities of respondents in both developed and developing countries think that the legal rights of internet users should be governed by the local laws of the country where the users live. Those surveyed consider that if a foreign government wants information about a person stored in a datacenter in that person’s country, they should have to seek permission from the person, not just the government. Also, police officers should have to get a search warrant to search for personal information on PCs, and personal information stored in the cloud should be subject to at least the same privacy protections as personal information stored on paper.

The study was conducted on 12,002 respondents from digitally developed nations like South Africa, Brazil, China, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Japan and the US.