Online Privacy & Security

Lee Rainie presents survey findings about how people navigate privacy in a networked world in their relationship with government, commercial enterprises and each other.

Pew Research Center has been studying Americans’ attitudes about their own personal information security and that of their families for years. Here are a few highlights.

Will governments and corporations expand current tracking policies? Or will innovators create new ways for individuals to control personal information? Experts are divided on whether a secure and balanced privacy-rights infrastructure will be in place by 2025.

We canvassed thousands of experts to ask them to predict the future of privacy in America and found they were divided on whether or not a secure, trusted privacy-rights infrastructure would be in place by 2025.

Our true/false statement question asked, “When a company posts a privacy policy, it ensures that the company keeps confidential all the information it collects on users.” Half of online Americans answered incorrectly.

The majority of Americans feel their privacy is being challenged in some fundamental ways, our new report finds. See the variety of perspectives our focus group respondents shared about privacy. Their answers are real, but they have been assigned a pseudonym.

A majority of Americans feel that their privacy is being challenged along such core dimensions as the security of their personal information and their ability to retain confidentiality.

A look at the prevalence of harassment online, its various forms, where it occurs, and how people respond.

Experts believe nations, rogue groups, and malicious individuals will step up their assaults on communications networks, targeting institutions, financial services agencies, utilities, and consumers over the next decade. Many also predict effective counter moves will generally contain the damage.