Russians do not want authorities to have access to non-public personal data

(Interfax – January 31, 2016)

Most respondents surveyed by the Public Opinion Foundation (58%) believe the state should not have access to non-public personal data and people’s correspondence on social networking sites and via email, while 24% believe it violates human rights and 22% believe it constitutes privacy invasion and is not ethical.

The poll, which surveys 1,000 respondents who use the Internet, was conducted in 104 populate areas in 53 regions of Russia on Jan. 15-19.

In the meantime 25% of the respondents believe the state should have access to non-public personal data and people’s correspondence on social networking sites and vi email. They believe it is needed for the safety of citizens and the state (7%) and helps avert terrorist attacks (5%).

A majority of the respondents believe public bodies are scanning no-public personal data and correspondence, but 51% believe it happens in exceptional situations, while 27% believe it is common practice. Another 5% do not believe that the authorities are interested in such information and 18% were undecided.

The respondents were also asked about their attitude to context advertising (targeted advertising that takes into account specific users’ activities in the Internet such as information on social networking sites, search requests and location).

Thirty-two percent of the respondents said they do not notice the advertising that is targeted at them. The rest say the see it, and 38% of them see it makes them uncomfortable. Only 24% of the respondents said context advertising is useful, while 61% said it is not useful.

Most Russians also believe it is unacceptable to use for context advertising information on users taken from social networking sites (71%) or their search requests (63%).