The data trust deficit

Trust in institutions to use data is much lower than trust in them in general, according to a new survey for the Royal Statistical Society.

The poll of just over two thousand British adults carried out by Ipsos MORI found that the media, internet services such as social media and search engines and telecommunication companies were the least trusted to use personal data appropriately.

When there was a public interest respondents were, in general, more trusting. The highest level of support was for Britain’s National Health Service being able to access health records to improve care and using tax and benefit records to identify fraud.

The public largely support the actions of security services and the stated purpose of the recently proposed DRIP law. The third most popular purpose was for the monitoring of internet and search traffic to identify potential terrorists. Only 25 per cent of those asked opposed this.

And ‘Big Data’ enthusiasts will be disappointed. Only 24 per cent of people were in favour of technology companies using search results to track flu epidemics, and only 15 per cent thought that online retailers should use past page views to target adverts.

In general the public seem to be against the use of data for commercial purposes, being much more supportive of the use by universities, charities and governments than by private companies.

However when the data is used with safeguards such as being anonymised, allowing for opt-outs and criminal charges for those who misuse it, support tends to increase.

Updated: The original chart showing the proportion of the public supporting various uses of personal data was incorrectly labelled by Ipsos MORI, the current version is correct. Only 24 per cent support the use of search data to track flu epidemics not 5 per cent as was originally said.