134 posts categorized "Surveys" Feed

Survey: Consumers Use Smart Home Devices Despite Finding Them 'Creepy'

Selligent Marketing Cloud logo Last month, Selligent Marketing Cloud announced the results of a global survey about how consumers view various brands. Some of the findings included smart speakers or voice assistants. Key findings:

"Sixty-nine percent of surveyed consumers find it “creepy” when they receive ads based on unprompted cues from voice assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home. Fifty-one percent are worried that voice assistants are listening to conversations without their consent."

Regarding voice assistants, younger consumers are likely to believe they are being listened to without their knowledge. 58 percent of Gen-Z (ages 18-24) versus 36 percent for Baby Boomers (ages 55-75) held this view. Key findings about privacy and social media: 41 percent of respondents said they have reduced their use of social media due to privacy concerns, and 32 percent said they quit at least one social media platform within the last 12 months.

Selligent surveyed 5,000 consumers in North America and Western Europe. The company provides services to help B2C marketers. To learn more, see the Selligent "Global Connected Consumer Index."


Survey Asked Americans Which They Consider Safer: Self-Driving Ride-Shares Or Solo Ride-Shares With Human Drivers

Many consumers use ride-sharing services, such as Lyft and Uber. We all have heard about self-driving cars. A polling firm asked consumers a very relevant question: "Which ride is trusted more? Would you rather take a rideshare alone or a self-driving car?" The results may surprise you.

The questions are relevant given news reports about sexual assaults and kidnapping ride-sharing drivers and imposters. A pedestrian death involving a self-driving ride-sharing car highlighted the ethical issues about who machines should save when fatal crashes can't be avoided. Developers have admitted that self-driving cars can be hacked by bad actors, just like other computers and mobile devices. And, new car buyers stated clear preferences when considering self-driving (a/k/a autonomous) vehicles versus standard vehicles with self-driving modes.

Using Google Consumer Surveys, The Zebra surveyed 2,000 persons in the United States during August, 2019 and found:

"53 percent of people felt safer taking a self-driving car than driver-operated rideshare alone; Baby Boomers (age 55-plus) were the only age group to prefer a solo Uber ride over a driverless car; Gen Z (ages 18–24) were most open to driverless rideshares: 40 percent said they were willing to hail a ride from one."

Founded 7 years ago, The Zebra describes itself as, "the nation's leading insurance comparison site." The survey also found:

"... Baby Boomers were the only group to trust solo ridesharing more than they would a ride in a self-driving car... despite women being subjected to higher rates of sexual violence, the poll found women were only slightly more likely than men to choose a self-driving car over ridesharing alone (53 percent of women compared to 52 percent of men).

It seems safe to assume: trust it or not, the tech is coming. Quickly. What are your opinions?


Global Study: New Car Buyers Still Prefer Standard Cars Over Self-Driving Cars

Ipsos logo A recent worldwide study found that new car buyers continue to enjoy and prefer the experience of driving. When asked whether they would consider fully self-driving cars (a/k/a as autonomous vehicles) or vehicles with autonomous modes, drivers stated their clear preferences. Key findings by Ipsos Mobility:

"1) Roughly half of new car buyers have some familiarity with autonomous mode; Familiarity highest in China and Japan; 2) On a global basis, 36% would consider a vehicle with autonomous mode however, only 12% would Definitely Consider; 3) If given the choice, only 6% of new car buyers would purchase a fully autonomous vehicle while the majority (57%) would purchase a vehicle with an autonomous mode and 37% would just purchase a standard vehicle..."

To summarize: it's the driving experience which matters.

Ipsos surveyed 20,000 drivers across ten countries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The 2019 "Global Mobility Navigator Syndicated Study" includes three modules: a) Autonomous and Advanced Features, b) Electric Vehicles (Needs & Intentions), and c) Shared Mobility (Car Sharing & Ride Hailing). The above findings are from the first module.

Secondary findings about autonomous features in cars:

"The auto industry is also battling an awareness issue with the new technology. Globally, only 15% said they knew a fair amount about Autonomous mode... while there are enjoyment factors to consider in the autonomous future, there are also safety concerns for consumers. The study revealed one is pedestrian safety as well as other vehicles, while the driver’s own safety is a slightly lower concern. Meanwhile, if a driver did use the autonomous mode, 44% state they would still remain focused on the road. This implies a tremendous lack of trust in the system’s ability to safely self-drive. Another big worry for consumers is the security of the vehicle’s data. A strong concern was the possibility of someone hacking into their self-driving system and causing an accident."

The report listed 16 features for "connected cars," including Predicting The Traffic, Advanced Drive Assist Systems, Search For Nearby Parking Lots, Automated Parking, Smart Refueling/Recharging, and more. Additional details about the report and features are available here.


Privacy Study Finds Consumers Less Likely To Share Several Key Data Elements

Advertising Research Foundation logoLast month, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) announced the results of its 2019 Privacy Study, which was conducted in March. The survey included 1,100 consumers in the United States weighted by age gender, and region. Key findings including device and internet usage:

"The key differences between 2018 and 2019 are: i) People are spending more time on their mobile devices and less time on their PCs; ii) People are spending more time checking email, banking, listening to music, buying things, playing games, and visiting social media via mobile apps; iii) In general, people are only slightly less likely to share their data than last year. iv) They are least likely to share their social security number; financial and medical information; and their home address and phone numbers; v) People seem to understand the benefits of personalized advertising, but do not value personalization highly and do not understand the technical approaches through which it is accomplished..."

Advertisers use these findings to adjust their advertising, offers, and pitches to maximize responses by consumers. More detail about the above privacy and data sharing findings:

"In general, people were slightly less likely to share their data in 2019 than they were in 2018. They were least likely to share their social security number; financial and medical information; their work address; and their home address and phone numbers in both years. They were most likely to share their gender, race, marital status, employment status, sexual orientation, religion, political affiliation, and citizenship... The biggest changes in respondents’ willingness to share their data from 2018 to 2019 were seen in their home address (-10 percentage points), spouse’s first and last name (-8 percentage points), personal email address (-7 percentage points), and first and last names (-6 percentage points)."

The researchers asked the data sharing question in two ways:

  1. "Which of the following types of information would you be willing to share with a website?"
  2. "Which of the following types of information would you be willing to share for a personalized experience?"

The survey included 20 information types for both questions. For the first question, survey respondents' willingness to share decreased for 15 of 20 information types, remained constant for two information types, and increased slightly for the remainder:

Which of the following types of information
would you be willing to share with a website?
Information Type 2018: %
Respondents
2019: %
Respondents
2019 H/(L)
2018
Birth Date 71 68 (3)
Citizenship Status 82 79 (3)
Employment Status 84 82 (2)
Financial Information 23 20 (3)
First & Last Name 69 63 (6)
Gender 93 93 --
Home Address 41 31 (10)
Home Landline
Phone Number
33 30 (3)
Marital Status 89 85 (4)
Medical Information 29 26 (3)
Personal Email Address 61 54 (7)
Personal Mobile
Phone Number
34 32 (2)
Place Of Birth 62 58 (4)
Political Affiliation 76 77 1
Race or Ethnicity 90 91 1
Religious Preference 78 79 1
Sexual Orientation 80 79 (1)
Social Security Number 10 10 --
Spouse's First
& Last Name
41 33 (8)
Work Address 33 31 (2)

The researchers asked about citizenship status due to controversy related to the upcoming 2020 Census. The researchers concluded:

The survey finding most relevant to these proposals is that the public does not see the value of sharing data to improve personalization of advertising messages..."

Overall, it appears that consumers are getting wiser about their privacy. Consumers' willingness to share decreased for more items than it increased for. View the detailed ARF 2019 Privacy Survey (Adobe PDF).


ExpressVPN Survey Indicates Americans Care About Privacy. Some Have Already Taken Action

ExpressVPN published the results of its privacy survey. The survey, commissioned by ExpressVPN and conducted by Propeller Insights, included a representative sample of about 1,000 adults in the United States.

Overall, 29.3% of survey respondents said they already use had used a virtual private network (VPN) or a proxy network. Survey respondents cited three broad reasons for using a VPN service: 1) to avoid surveillance, 2) to access content, and 3) to stay safe online. Detailed survey results about surveillance concerns:

"The most popular reasons to use a VPN are related to surveillance, with 41.7% of respondents aiming to protect against sites seeing their IP, 26.4% to prevent their internet service provider (ISP) from gathering information, and 16.6% to shield against their local government."

Who performs the surveillance matters to consumers. People are more concerned with surveillance by companies than by law enforcement agencies within the U.S. government:

"Among the respondents, 15.9% say they fear the FBI surveillance, and only 6.4% fear the NSA spying on them. People are by far most worried about information gathering by ISPs (23.2%) and Facebook (20.5%). Google spying is more of a worry for people (5.9%) than snooping by employers (2.6%) or family members (5.1%).

Concerns with internet service providers (ISPs) are not surprising since these telecommunications company enjoy a unique position enabling them to track all online activities by consumers. Concerns about Facebook are not surprising since it tracks both users and non-users, similar to advertising networks. The "protect against sites seeing their IP" suggests that consumers, or at least VPN users, want to protect themselves and their devices against advertisers, advertising networks, and privacy-busting mobile apps which track their geo-location.

Detailed survey results about content access concerns:

"... 26.7% use [a VPN service] to access their corporate or academic network, 19.9% to access content otherwise not available in their region, and 16.9% to circumvent censorship."

The survey also found that consumers generally trust their mobile devices:

" Only 30.5% of Android users are “not at all” or “not very” confident in their devices. iOS fares slightly better, with 27.4% of users expressing a lack of confidence."

The survey uncovered views about government intervention and policies:

"Net neutrality continues to be popular (70% more respondents support it rather then don’t), but 51.4% say they don’t know enough about it to form an opinion... 82.9% also believe Congress should enact laws to require tech companies to get permission before collecting personal data. Even more, 85.2% believe there should be fines for companies that lose users’ data, and 90.2% believe there should be further fines if the data is misused. Of the respondents, 47.4% believe Congress should go as far as breaking up Facebook and Google."

The survey found views about smart devices (e.g., door bells, voice assistants, smart speakers) installed in many consumers' homes, since these devices are equipped with always-on cameras and/or microphones:

"... 85% of survey respondents say they are extremely (24.7%), very (23.4%), or somewhat (28.0%) concerned about smart devices monitoring their personal habits... Almost a quarter (24.8%) of survey respondents do not own any smart devices at all, while almost as many (24.4%) always turn off their devices’ microphones if they are not using them. However, one-fifth (21.2%) say they always leave the microphone on. The numbers are similar for camera use..."

There are more statistics and findings in the entire survey report by ExpressVPN. I encourage everyone to read it.


Study: While Consumers Want Sites Like Facebook And Google To Collect Less Data, Few Want To Pay For Privacy

A recent study by the Center For Data Innovation explored consumers' attitudes about online privacy. One of the primary findings:

"... when potential tradeoffs were not part of the question approximately 80 percent of Americans agreed that they would like online services such as Facebook and Google to collect less of their data..."

So, most survey participants want more online privacy as defined by less data collected about them. That is good news, right? Maybe. The researchers dug deeper to understand survey participants' views about "tradeoffs" - various ways of paying for online privacy. It found that support for more privacy (e.g., less data collected):

"... eroded when respondents considered these tradeoffs... [support] dropped by 6 percentage points when respondents were asked whether they would like online services to collect less data even if it means seeing ads that are less useful. Support dropped by 27 percentage points when respondents considered whether they would like less data collection even if it means seeing more ads than before. And it dropped by 26 percentage points when respondents were asked whether they would like less data collection even if it means losing access to some features they use now."

So, support for more privacy fell if irrelevant ads, more ads, and/or fewer features were the consequences. There is more:

"The largest drop in support (53 percentage points) came when respondents were asked whether they would like online services to collect less of their data even if it means paying a monthly subscription fee."

This led to a second major finding:

"Only one in four Americans want online services such as Facebook and Google to collect less of their data if it means they would have to start paying a monthly subscription fee..."

So, most want privacy but few are willing to pay for it. This is probably reassuring news for executives in a variety of industries (e.g., social media, tech companies, device manufacturers, etc.) to keep doing what they are doing: massive data collection of consumers' data via sites, mobile apps, partnerships, and however else they can get it.

Next, the survey asked participants if they would accept more data collection if that provided more benefits:

"... approximately 74 percent of Americans opposed having online services such as Google and Facebook collect more of their data. But that opposition decreased by 11 percentage points... if it means seeing ads that are more useful. It dropped by 17 percentage points... if it means seeing fewer ads than before and... if it means getting access to new features they would use. The largest decrease in opposition (18 percentage points) came... if it means getting more free apps and services..."

So, while most consumers want online privacy, they can be easily persuaded to abandon their positions with promises of more benefits. The survey included a national online poll of 3,240 U.S. adult Internet users. It was conducted December 13 - 16, 2018.

What to make of these survey results? Americans are fickle and lazy. We say we want online privacy, but few are willing to pay for it. While nothing in life is free, few consumers seem to realize that this advice applies to online privacy, too. Plus, consumers seem to highly value convenience regardless of the consequences.

What do you think?


Study: Privacy Concerns Have Caused Consumers To Change How They Use The Internet

Facebook commissioned a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to understand "internet inclusion" globally, or how people use the Internet, the benefits received, and the obstacles experienced. The latest survey included 5,069 respondents from 100 countries in Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Overall findings in the report cited:

"... cause for both optimism and concern. We are seeing steady progress in the number and percentage of households connected to the Internet, narrowing the gender gap and improving accessibility for people with disabilities. The Internet also has become a crucial tool for employment and obtaining job-related skills. On the other hand, growth in Internet connections is slowing, especially among the lowest income countries, and efforts to close the digital divide are stalling..."

The EIU describes itself as, "the world leader in global business intelligence, to help companies, governments and banks understand changes in the world is changing, seize opportunities created by those changes, and manage associated risks. So, any provider of social media services globally would greatly value the EIU's services.

The chart below highlights some of the benefits mentioned by survey respondents:

Chart-internet-benefits-eiu-2019

Other benefits respondents said: almost three-quarters (74.4%) said the Internet is more effective than other methods for finding jobs; 70.5% said their job prospects have improved due to the Internet; and more. So, job seekers and employers both benefit.

Key findings regarding online privacy (emphasis added):

"... More than half (52.2%) of [survey] respondents say they are not confident about their online privacy, hardly changed from 51.5% in the 2018 survey... Most respondents are changing the way they use the Internet because they believe some information may not remain private. For example, 55.8% of respondents say they limit how much financial information they share online because of privacy concerns. This is relatively consistent across different age groups and household income levels... 42.6% say they limit how much personal health and medical information they share. Only 7.5% of respondents say privacy concerns have not changed the way they use the Internet."

So, the lack of online privacy affects how people use the internet -- for business and pleasure. The chart below highlights the types of online changes:

Chart-internet-usage-eiu-2019

Findings regarding privacy and online shopping:

"Despite lingering privacy concerns, people are increasingly shopping online. Whether this continues in the future may hinge on attitudes toward online safety and security... A majority of respondents say that making online purchases is safe and secure, but, at 58.8% it was slightly lower than the 62.1% recorded in the 2018 survey."

So, the percentage of respondents who said online purchases as safe and secure went in the wrong direction -- down. Not good. There were regional differences, too, about online privacy:

"In Europe, the share of respondents confident about their online privacy increased by 8 percentage points from the 2018 survey, probably because of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s comprehensive data privacy rules that came into force in May 2018. However, the Middle East and North Africa region saw a decline of 9 percentage points compared with the 2018 survey."

So, sensible legislation to protect consumers' online privacy can have positive impacts. There were other regional differences:

"Trust in online sources of information remained relatively stable, except in the West. Political turbulence in the US and UK may have played a role in causing the share of respondents in North America and Europe who say they trust information on government websites and apps to retreat by 10 percentage points and 6 percentage points, respectively, compared with the 2018 survey."

So, stability is important. The report's authors concluded:

"The survey also reflects anxiety about online privacy and a decline in trust in some sources of information. Indeed, trust in government information has fallen since last year in Europe and North America. The growth and importance of the digital economy will mean that alleviating these anxieties should be a priority of companies, governments, regulators and developers."

Addressing those anxieties is critical, if governments in the West are serious about facilitating business growth via consumer confidence and internet usage. Download the Inclusive Internet Index 2019 Executive Summary (Adobe PDF) report.


Survey: People In Relationships Spy On Cheating Partners. FTC: Singles Looking For Love Are The Biggest Target Of Scammers

Happy Valentine's Day! First, BestVPN announced the results of a survey of 1,000 adults globally about relationships and trust in today's digital age where social media usage is very popular. Key findings:

"... nearly 30% of respondents admitted to using tracking apps to catch a partner [suspected of or cheating]. After all, over a quarter of those caught cheating were busted by modern technology... 85% of those caught out in the past now take additional steps to protect their privacy, including deleting their browsing data or using a private browsing mode."

Below is an infographic with more findings from the survey.

Valentines-day-infograph-bestvpn-feb2019

Second, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning earlier this week about fraud affecting single persons:

"... romance scams generated more reported losses than any other consumer fraud type reported to the agency... The number of romance scams reported to the FTC has grown from 8,500 in 2015 to more than 21,000 in 2018, while reported losses to these scams more than quadrupled in recent years—from $33 million in 2015 to $143 million last year. For those who said they lost money to a romance scam, the median reported loss was $2,600, with those 70 and over reporting the biggest median losses at $10,000."

"Romance scammers often find their victims online through a dating site or app or via social media. These scammers create phony profiles that often involve the use of a stranger’s photo they have found online. The goals of these scams are often the same: to gain the victim’s trust and love in order to get them to send money through a wire transfer, gift card, or other means."

So, be careful out there. Don't cheat, and beware of scammers and dating imposters. You have been warned.


Survey: Users Don't Understand Facebook's Advertising System. Some Disagree With Its Classifications

Most people know that many companies collect data about their online activities. Based upon the data collected, companies classify users for a variety of reasons and purposes. Do users agree with these classifications? Do the classifications accurately describe users' habits, interests, and activities?

Facebook logo To answer these questions, the Pew Research Center surveyed users of Facebook. Why Facebook? Besides being the most popular social media platform in the United States, it collects:

"... a wide variety of data about their users’ behaviors. Platforms use this data to deliver content and recommendations based on users’ interests and traits, and to allow advertisers to target ads... But how well do Americans understand these algorithm-driven classification systems, and how much do they think their lives line up with what gets reported about them?"

The findings are significant. First:

"Facebook makes it relatively easy for users to find out how the site’s algorithm has categorized their interests via a “Your ad preferences” page. Overall, however, 74% of Facebook users say they did not know that this list of their traits and interests existed until they were directed to their page as part of this study."

So, almost three quarters of Facebook users surveyed don't know what data Facebook has collected about them, nor how to view it (nor how to edit it, or how to opt out of the ad targeting classifications). According to Wired magazine, Facebook's "Your Ad Preferences" page:

"... can be hard to understand if you haven’t looked at the page before. At the top, Facebook displays “Your interests.” These groupings are assigned based on your behavior on the platform and can be used by marketers to target you with ads. They can include fairly straightforward subjects, like “Netflix,” “Graduate school,” and “Entrepreneurship,” but also more bizarre ones, like “Everything” and “Authority.” Facebook has generated an enormous number of these categories for its users. ProPublica alone has collected over 50,000, including those only marketers can see..."

Now, back to the Pew survey. After survey participants viewed their Ad Preferences page:

"A majority of users (59%) say these categories reflect their real-life interests, while 27% say they are not very or not at all accurate in describing them. And once shown how the platform classifies their interests, roughly half of Facebook users (51%) say they are not comfortable that the company created such a list."

So, about half of persons surveyed use a site whose data collection they are uncomfortable with. Not good. Second, substantial groups said the classifications by Facebook were not accurate:

"... about half of Facebook users (51%) are assigned a political “affinity” by the site. Among those who are assigned a political category by the site, 73% say the platform’s categorization of their politics is very or somewhat accurate, while 27% say it describes them not very or not at all accurately. Put differently, 37% of Facebook users are both assigned a political affinity and say that affinity describes them well, while 14% are both assigned a category and say it does not represent them accurately..."

So, significant numbers of users disagree with the political classifications Facebook assigned to their profiles. Third, its' not only politics:

"... Facebook also lists a category called “multicultural affinity”... this listing is meant to designate a user’s “affinity” with various racial and ethnic groups, rather than assign them to groups reflecting their actual race or ethnic background. Only about a fifth of Facebook users (21%) say they are listed as having a “multicultural affinity.” Overall, 60% of users who are assigned a multicultural affinity category say they do in fact have a very or somewhat strong affinity for the group to which they are assigned, while 37% say their affinity for that group is not particularly strong. Some 57% of those who are assigned to this category say they do in fact consider themselves to be a member of the racial or ethnic group to which Facebook assigned them."

The survey included a nationally representative sample of 963 Facebook users ages 18 and older from the United States. The survey was conducted September 4 to October 1, 2018. Read the entire survey at the Pew Research Center site.

What can consumers conclude from this survey? Social media users should understand that all social sites, and especially mobile apps, collect data about you, and then make judgements... classifications about you. (Remember, some Samsung phone owners were unable to delete Facebook and other mobile apps users. And, everyone wants your geolocation data.) Use any tools the sites provide to edit or adjust your ad preferences to match your interests. Adjust the privacy settings on your profile to limit the data sharing as much as possible.

Last, an important reminder. While Facebook users can edit their ad preferences and can opt out of the ad-targeting classifications, they cannot completely avoid ads. Facebook will still display less-targeted ads. That is simply, Facebook being Facebook to make money. That probably applies to other social sites, too.

What are your opinions of the survey's findings?


Google To EU Regulators: No One Country Should Censor The Web Globally. Poll Finds Canadians Support 'Right To Be Forgotten'

For those watching privacy legislation in Europe, MediaPost reported:

"... Maciej Szpunar, an advisor to the highest court in the EU, sided with Google in the fight, arguing that the right to be forgotten should only be enforceable in Europe -- not the entire world. The opinion is non-binding, but seen as likely to be followed."

For those unfamiliar, in the European Union (EU) the right to be forgotten:

"... was created in 2014, when EU judges ruled that Google (and other search engines) must remove links to embarrassing information about Europeans at their request... The right to be forgotten doesn't exist in the United States... Google interpreted the EU's ruling as requiring removal of links to material in search engines designed for European countries but not from its worldwide search results... In 2015, French regulators rejected Google's position and ordered the company to remove material from all of its results pages. Google then asked Europe's highest court to reject that view. The company argues that no one country should be able to censor the web internationally."

No one corporation should be able to censor the web globally, either. Meanwhile, Radio Canada International reported:

"A new poll shows a slim majority of Canadians agree with the concept known as the “right to be forgotten online.” This means the right to have outdated, inaccurate, or no longer relevant information about yourself removed from search engine results. The poll by the Angus Reid Institute found 51 percent of Canadians agree that people should have the right to be forgotten..."

Consumers should have control over their information. If that control is limited to only the country of their residence, then the global nature of the internet means that control is very limited -- and probably irrelevant. What are your opinions?


Some Surprising Facts About Facebook And Its Users

Facebook logo The Pew Research Center announced findings from its latest survey of social media users:

  • About two-thirds (68%) of adults in the United States use Facebook. That is unchanged from April 2016, but up from 54% in August 2012. Only Youtube gets more adult usage (73%).
  • About three-quarters (74%) of adult Facebook users visit the site at least once a day. That's higher than Snapchat (63%) and Instagram (60%).
  • Facebook is popular across all demographic groups in the United States: 74% of women use it, as do 62% of men, 81% of persons ages 18 to 29, and 41% of persons ages 65 and older.
  • Usage by teenagers has fallen to 51% (at March/April 2018) from 71% during 2014 to 2015. More teens use other social media services: YouTube (85%), Instagram (72%) and Snapchat (69%).
  • 43% of adults use Facebook as a news source. That is higher than other social media services: YouTube (21%), Twitter (12%), Instagram (8%), and LinkedIn (6%). More women (61%) use Facebook as a news source than men (39%). More whites (62%) use Facebook as a news source than nonwhites (37%).
  • 54% of adult users said they adjusted their privacy settings during the past 12 months. 42% said they have taken a break from checking the platform for several weeks or more. 26% said they have deleted the app from their phone during the past year.

Perhaps, the most troubling finding:

"Many adult Facebook users in the U.S. lack a clear understanding of how the platform’s news feed works, according to the May and June survey. Around half of these users (53%) say they do not understand why certain posts are included in their news feed and others are not, including 20% who say they do not understand this at all."

Facebook users should know that the service does not display in their news feed all posts by their friends and groups. Facebook's proprietary algorithm -- called its "secret sauce" by some -- displays items it thinks users will engage with = click the "Like" or other emotion buttons. This makes Facebook a terrible news source, since it doesn't display all news -- only the news you (probably already) agree with.

That's like living life in an online bubble. Sadly, there is more.

If you haven't watched it, PBS has broadcast a two-part documentary titled, "The Facebook Dilemma" (see trailer below), which arguable could have been titled, "the dark side of sharing." The Frontline documentary rightly discusses Facebook's approaches to news, privacy, its focus upon growth via advertising revenues, how various groups have used the service as a weapon, and Facebook's extensive data collection about everyone.

Yes, everyone. Obviously, Facebook collects data about its users. The service also collects data about nonusers in what the industry calls "shadow profiles." CNet explained that during an April:

"... hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Facebook CEO confirmed the company collects information on nonusers. "In general, we collect data of people who have not signed up for Facebook for security purposes," he said... That data comes from a range of sources, said Nate Cardozo, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That includes brokers who sell customer information that you gave to other businesses, as well as web browsing data sent to Facebook when you "like" content or make a purchase on a page outside of the social network. It also includes data about you pulled from other Facebook users' contacts lists, no matter how tenuous your connection to them might be. "Those are the [data sources] we're aware of," Cardozo said."

So, there might be more data sources besides the ones we know about. Facebook isn't saying. So much for greater transparency and control claims by Mr. Zuckerberg. Moreover, data breaches highlight the problems with the service's massive data collection and storage:

"The fact that Facebook has [shadow profiles] data isn't new. In 2013, the social network revealed that user data had been exposed by a bug in its system. In the process, it said it had amassed contact information from users and matched it against existing user profiles on the social network. That explained how the leaked data included information users hadn't directly handed over to Facebook. For example, if you gave the social network access to the contacts in your phone, it could have taken your mom's second email address and added it to the information your mom already gave to Facebook herself..."

So, Facebook probably launched shadow profiles when it introduced its mobile app. That means, if you uploaded the address book in your phone to Facebook, then you helped the service collect information about nonusers, too. This means Facebook acts more like a massive advertising network than simply a social media service.

How has Facebook been able to collect massive amounts of data about both users and nonusers? According to the Frontline documentary, we consumers have lax privacy laws in the United States to thank for this massive surveillance advertising mechanism. What do you think?


When Fatal Crashes Can't Be Avoided, Who Should Self-Driving Cars Save? Or Sacrifice? Results From A Global Survey May Surprise You

Experts predict that there will be 10 million self-driving cars on the roads by 2020. Any outstanding issues need to be resolved before then. One outstanding issue is the "trolley problem" - a situation where a fatal vehicle crash can not be avoided and the self-driving car must decide whether to save the passenger or a nearby pedestrian. Ethical issues with self-driving cars are not new. There are related issues, and some experts have called for a code of ethics.

Like it or not, the software in self-driving cars must be programmed to make decisions like this. Which person in a "trolley problem" should the self-driving car save? In other words, the software must be programmed with moral preferences which dictate which person to sacrifice.

The answer is tricky. You might assume: always save the driver, since nobody would buy self-driving car which would kill their owners. What if the pedestrian is crossing against a 'do not cross' signal within a crosswalk? Does the answer change if there are multiple pedestrians in the crosswalk? What if the pedestrians are children, elders, or pregnant? Or a doctor? Does it matter if the passenger is older than the pedestrians?

To understand what the public wants -- expects -- in self-driving cars, also known as autonomous vehicles (AV), researchers from MIT asked consumers in a massive, online global survey. The survey included 2 million people from 233 countries. The survey included 13 accident scenarios with nine varying factors:

  1. "Sparing people versus pets/animals,
  2. Staying on course versus swerving,
  3. Sparing passengers versus pedestrians,
  4. Sparing more lives versus fewer lives,
  5. Sparing men versus women,
  6. Sparing the young versus the elderly,
  7. Sparing pedestrians who cross legally versus jaywalking,
  8. Sparing the fit versus the less fit, and
  9. Sparing those with higher social status versus lower social status."

Besides recording the accident choices, the researchers also collected demographic information (e.g., gender, age, income, education, attitudes about religion and politics, geo-location) about the survey participants, in order to identify clusters: groups, areas, countries, territories, or regions containing people with similar "moral preferences."

Newsweek reported:

"The study is basically trying to understand the kinds of moral decisions that driverless cars might have to resort to," Edmond Awad, lead author of the study from the MIT Media Lab, said in a statement. "We don't know yet how they should do that."

And the overall findings:

"First, human lives should be spared over those of animals; many people should be saved over a few; and younger people should be preserved ahead of the elderly."

These have implications for policymakers. The researchers noted:

"... given the strong preference for sparing children, policymakers must be aware of a dual challenge if they decide not to give a special status to children: the challenge of explaining the rationale for such a decision, and the challenge of handling the strong backlash that will inevitably occur the day an autonomous vehicle sacrifices children in a dilemma situation."

The researchers found regional differences about who should be saved:

"The first cluster (which we label the Western cluster) contains North America as well as many European countries of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian cultural groups. The internal structure within this cluster also exhibits notable face validity, with a sub-cluster containing Scandinavian countries, and a sub-cluster containing Commonwealth countries.

The second cluster (which we call the Eastern cluster) contains many far eastern countries such as Japan and Taiwan that belong to the Confucianist cultural group, and Islamic countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The third cluster (a broadly Southern cluster) consists of the Latin American countries of Central and South America, in addition to some countries that are characterized in part by French influence (for example, metropolitan France, French overseas territories, and territories that were at some point under French leadership). Latin American countries are cleanly separated in their own sub-cluster within the Southern cluster."

The researchers also observed:

"... systematic differences between individualistic cultures and collectivistic cultures. Participants from individualistic cultures, which emphasize the distinctive value of each individual, show a stronger preference for sparing the greater number of characters. Furthermore, participants from collectivistic cultures, which emphasize the respect that is due to older members of the community, show a weaker preference for sparing younger characters... prosperity (as indexed by GDP per capita) and the quality of rules and institutions (as indexed by the Rule of Law) correlate with a greater preference against pedestrians who cross illegally. In other words, participants from countries that are poorer and suffer from weaker institutions are more tolerant of pedestrians who cross illegally, presumably because of their experience of lower rule compliance and weaker punishment of rule deviation... higher country-level economic inequality (as indexed by the country’s Gini coefficient) corresponds to how unequally characters of different social status are treated. Those from countries with less economic equality between the rich and poor also treat the rich and poor less equally... In nearly all countries, participants showed a preference for female characters; however, this preference was stronger in nations with better health and survival prospects for women. In other words, in places where there is less devaluation of women’s lives in health and at birth, males are seen as more expendable..."

This is huge. It makes one question the wisdom of a one-size-fits-all programming approach by AV makers wishing to sell cars globally. Citizens in clusters may resent an AV maker forcing its moral preferences upon them. Some clusters or countries may demand vehicles matching their moral preferences.

The researchers concluded (emphasis added):

"Never in the history of humanity have we allowed a machine to autonomously decide who should live and who should die, in a fraction of a second, without real-time supervision. We are going to cross that bridge any time now, and it will not happen in a distant theatre of military operations; it will happen in that most mundane aspect of our lives, everyday transportation. Before we allow our cars to make ethical decisions, we need to have a global conversation to express our preferences to the companies that will design moral algorithms, and to the policymakers that will regulate them... Our data helped us to identify three strong preferences that can serve as building blocks for discussions of universal machine ethics, even if they are not ultimately endorsed by policymakers: the preference for sparing human lives, the preference for sparing more lives, and the preference for sparing young lives. Some preferences based on gender or social status vary considerably across countries, and appear to reflect underlying societal-level preferences..."

And the researchers advised caution, given this study's limitations (emphasis added):

"Even with a sample size as large as ours, we could not do justice to all of the complexity of autonomous vehicle dilemmas. For example, we did not introduce uncertainty about the fates of the characters, and we did not introduce any uncertainty about the classification of these characters. In our scenarios, characters were recognized as adults, children, and so on with 100% certainty, and life-and-death outcomes were predicted with 100% certainty. These assumptions are technologically unrealistic, but they were necessary... Similarly, we did not manipulate the hypothetical relationship between respondents and characters (for example, relatives or spouses)... Indeed, we can embrace the challenges of machine ethics as a unique opportunity to decide, as a community, what we believe to be right or wrong; and to make sure that machines, unlike humans, unerringly follow these moral preferences. We might not reach universal agreement: even the strongest preferences expressed through the [survey] showed substantial cultural variations..."

Several important limitations to remember. And, there are more. It didn't address self-driving trucks. Should an AV tractor-trailer semi  -- often called a robotruck -- carrying $2 million worth of goods sacrifice its load (and passenger) to save one or more pedestrians? What about one or more drivers on the highway? Does it matter if the other drivers are motorcyclists, school buses, or ambulances?

What about autonomous freighters? Should an AV cargo ship be programed to sacrifice its $80 million load to save a pleasure craft? Does the size (e.g., number of passengers) of the pleasure craft matter? What if the other craft is a cabin cruiser with five persons? Or a cruise ship with 2,000 passengers and a crew of 800? What happens in international waters between AV ships from different countries programmed with different moral preferences?

Regardless, this MIT research seems invaluable. It's a good start. AV makers (e.g., autos, ships, trucks) need to explicitly state what their vehicles will (and won't do). Don't hide behind legalese similar to what exists today in too many online terms-of-use and privacy policies.

Hopefully, corporate executives and government policymakers will listen, consider the limitations, demand follow-up research, and not dive headlong into the AV pool without looking first. After reading this study, it struck me that similar research would have been wise before building a global social media service, since people in different countries or regions having varying preferences with online privacy, sharing information, and corporate surveillance. What are your opinions?


Survey: Most Home Users Satisfied With Voice-Controlled Assistants. Tech Adoption Barriers Exist

Recent survey results reported by MediaPost:

"Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have the highest satisfaction levels among mobile users, each with an 85% satisfaction rating, followed by Siri and Bixby at 78% and Microsoft’s Cortana at 77%... As found in other studies, virtual assistants are being used for a range of things, including looking up things on the internet (51%), listening to music (48%), getting weather information (46%) and setting a timer (35%)... Smart speaker usage varies, with 31% of Amazon device owners using their speaker at least a few times a week, Google Home owners 25% and Apple HomePod 18%."

Additional survey results are available at Digital Trends and Experian. PWC found:

"Only 10% of surveyed respondents were not familiar with voice-enabled products and devices. Of the 90% who were, the majority have used a voice assistant (72%). Adoption is being driven by younger consumers, households with children, and households with an income of >$100k... Despite being accessible everywhere, three out of every four consumers (74%) are using their mobile voice assistants at home..."

Consumers seem to want privacy when using voice assistants, so usage tends to occur at home and not in public places. Also:

"... the bulk of consumers have yet to graduate to more advanced activities like shopping or controlling other smart devices in the home... 50% of respondents have made a purchase using their voice assistant, and an additional 25% would consider doing so in the future. The majority of items purchased are small and quick.. Usage will continue to increase but consistency must improve for wider adoption... Some consumers see voice assistants as a privacy risk... When forced to choose, 57% of consumers said they would rather watch an ad in the middle of a TV show than listen to an ad spoken by their voice assistant..."

Consumers want control over the presentation of advertisements by voice assistants. Control options desired include skip, select, never while listening to music, only at pre-approved times, customized based upon interests, seamless integration, and match to preferred brands. 38 percent of survey respondents said that they, "don't want something 'listening in' on my life all the time."

What are your preferences with voice assistants? Any privacy concerns?


The Overlooked Weak Link in Election Security

[Editor's note: today's guest post, by reporters at ProPublica, discusses voting and elections security within the United States. It is reprinted with permission.]

By Jack Gillum and Jessica Huseman, ProPublica

More than one-third of counties that are overseeing elections in some of the most contested congressional races this November run email systems that could make it easy for hackers to log in and steal potentially sensitive information.

A ProPublica survey found that official email accounts used by 11 county election offices, which are in charge of tallying votes in 12 key U.S. House of Representatives races from California to Ohio, could be breached with only a user name and password — potentially allowing hackers to vacuum up confidential communications or impersonate election administrators. Cybersecurity experts recommend having a second means of verifying a user’s identity, such as typing in an additional code from a smartphone or card, to thwart intruders who have gained someone’s login credentials through trickery or theft. This system, known as two-factor verification, is available on many commercial email services.

“Humans are horrific at creating passwords, which is why ‘password’ is the most commonly used password,” said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, the chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C., who has pushed for security fixes in the voting process. “This means increasingly we need something other than passwords to secure access to our accounts, especially email, which tends to undergird all our other accounts.”

The email vulnerabilities emerged in ProPublica’s survey of election security in 27 counties encompassing all or part of roughly 40 congressional districts that the Cook Political Report has said are toss-ups. These contests could determine if Democrats take control the U.S. House of Representatives, where the party needs to pick up about two dozen seats to flip the current Republican majority. Of the 12 districts in counties with less protected email systems, Republicans are seeking re-election in 10. The other two are open seats where incumbents are stepping down.

Much attention has focused on the potential to hack voting machines. In the “Voting Village” at the Def Con security conference this summer in Las Vegas, hackers sought to compromise a handful of machines. But lax protections for internet-connected systems like email servers may pose just as serious a threat.

The lack of two-factor verification may have helped Russian hackers ultimately gain access to the Democratic National Committee’s network in April 2016, according to a federal indictment. Prosecutors say a Democratic campaign employee unwittingly put her password into a spearphishing email – a targeted message meant to dupe users into sharing their login information. Russian hackers also tricked John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, into handing over his password, enabling an embarrassing leak of his emails weeks before the election.

Even a program created by the Kansas secretary of state’s office to prevent voter fraud was vulnerable to snooping, ProPublica reported last year. The program, Crosscheck, sought to identify voters casting ballots in more than one state by comparing the rolls across states. But its files were hosted on an insecure server, and program officials regularly shared user names and passwords—many of them overly simplistic—for the site by email as late as 2017. Crosscheck paused operations in 2018 because of concerns about security and accuracy, and it is unclear when it will begin matching rolls again. The Kansas Secretary of State’s office did not return a request for comment.

A different kind of cyber-attack in 2016 manipulated the software code behind Illinois’ voter-registration system to expose the personal details of thousands of people. Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the state board of elections, said the flaws that allowed the penetration have been fixed. Special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russians this past July in connection with an unspecified breach that Illinois officials said was very likely the attack on the voter registration database.

“This wasn’t about to steal votes, but to create havoc,” Dietrich said. “If you can steal a voter database, and then go in and mess up the poll books that election judges rely on to check off voters, that’s going to be the story: That the United States can’t run a competent election.”

Using a checklist developed by Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, ProPublica asked county election officials about their email systems, as well as about cybersecurity protections for voting machines and computers that check in voters at polling sites. Voter registration is generally handled at the state level, while counties administer elections and are responsible for protecting voting machines and verifying end-of-night vote tallies that determine winners.

Funded by local taxes, counties are generally run by elected commissioners and often have centralized IT staff overseeing email services for departments ranging from the medical examiner to public works. As a result, elections officials have to compete for IT resources and attention.

Most of the counties interviewed said they had bulletproofed their computer systems and voting equipment. Joel Miller, an election official in Linn County, Iowa, said the county has recently put in place two-factor authentication requirements for its email systems. “We all need minimum standards for network security,” he said. “We weren’t up to date until recently.”

The counties with vulnerable email systems ranged in population from Orange County, California, with 3.1 million people to Olmsted County, Minnesota, with 155,000. Orange County elections director Neal Kelley said he’d prefer to have two-factor authentication. It hasn’t been implemented yet, but is “on the short horizon,” he said. There are two toss-up House races in Orange County.

Noah Praetz, the director of elections for Cook County, Illinois, except the city of Chicago, said his office “lacks a little bit of control” when it comes to changing IT systems because the county-run network serves more than 24,000 employees. He said the county government doesn’t require two-factor authentication for employees to log into emails.

One county reported two problems. Fayette County, Kentucky, which includes Lexington, told ProPublica its electronic voting machines don’t produce a separate paper trail for voters to verify their choices. Nor does it use two-factor authentication on its email system. Fayette, one of the state’s largest counties, is home to a chunk of Kentucky’s 6th congressional district, where a once-safe Republican incumbent is facing an unexpectedly competitive challenger.

Don Blevins, the Fayette elections chief, told ProPublica his county is not at risk for an email hack that would affect voting or registration. “I don’t question that two-factor authentication is better,” he said, but added, “Since we don’t use email to conduct voting, nor voter registration, then the level of security is moot.”

Besides Orange, Olmsted, Cook, and Fayette, the counties without two-factor authentication were: Arapaho County, Colorado; Linn County, Hennepin County, and Dakota County, Minnesota; Hamilton County, Ohio; King County, Washington; and Harris County, Texas.

Some counties have secured their emails but had other shortcomings. Shawnee County, Kansas, said it doesn’t yet have countermeasures to stop hackers from bringing down its website by overloading it with malicious traffic. If such a denial-of-service attack takes the site offline, election commissioner Andrew Howell said, officials would instead publish election results on social media.

Five of the 27 counties surveyed did not respond to multiple emails or phone calls from ProPublica: Polk County, Iowa; St. Louis County, Minnesota; Ocean County and Essex County, New Jersey; and Oneida County, New York.

U.S. law enforcement officials and cybersecurity experts have been working with states in the months leading up to the November midterms to improve election security. States are using some of the $380 million in newly earmarked federal funds to test for vulnerabilities and recruit and train IT staff, according to congressional testimony from the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Fixing technical problems isn’t cheap, and county governments have had to make hard choices when prioritizing spending. Tammy Patrick, a former election administrator in Arizona and now a senior adviser at the nonprofit Democracy Fund, said counties may consider it more urgent to replace outdated voting machines than to fix email systems.

That said, even short-lived IT security problems may have a corrosive effect on public trust in the accuracy of ballot results. “The last thing you want to do on Election Day is face problems you could have easily dealt with before then,” Hall, the technologist, said. “Officials will dismissively say, ‘It hasn’t happened to us.’ But with that attitude, you’re building a castle on sand.”

Ally Levine, Lilia Chang and Blake Paterson contributed to this report.

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Study: Most Consumers Fear Companies Will 'Go Too Far' With Artificial Intelligence Technologies

New research has found that consumers are conflicted about artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. A national study of 697 adults during the Spring of 2018 by Elicit Insights found:

"Most consumers are conflicted about AI. They know there are benefits, but recognize the risks, too"

Several specific findings:

  • 73 percent of survey participants (e.g., Strongly Agree, Agree) fear "some companies will go too far with AI"
  • 64 percent agreed (e.g., Strongly Agree, Agree) with the statement: "I'm concerned about how companies will use artificial intelligence and the information they have about me to engage with me"
  • "Six out of 10 Americans agree or strongly agree that AI will never be as good as human interaction. Human interaction remains sacred and there is concern with at least a third of consumers that AI won’t stay focused on mundane tasks and leave the real thinking to humans."

Many of the concerns center around control. As AI applications become smarter and more powerful, they are able to operate independently, without human -- users' -- authorization. When presented with several smart-refrigerator scenarios, the less control users had over purchases the fewer survey participants viewed AI as a benefit:

Smart refrigerator and food purchase scenarios. AI study by Elicit Insights. Click to view larger version

AI technologies can also be used to find and present possible matches for online dating services. Again, survey participants expressed similar control concerns:

Dating service scenarios. AI study by Elicit Insights. Click to view larger version

Download Elicit Insights' complete Artificial Intelligence survey (Adobe PDF). What are your opinions? Do you prefer AI applications that operate independently, or which require your authorization?


Study: Performance Issues Impede IoT Device Trust And Usage Worldwide By Consumers

Dynatrace logo A global survey recently uncovered interesting findings about the usage and satisfaction of Iot (Internet of things) devices by consumers. A survey of consumers in several countries found that 52 percent already use IoT devices, and 64 percent of users have already encountered performance issues with their devices.

Opinium Research logo Dynatrace, a software intelligence company, commissioned Opinium Research to conduct a global survey of 10,002 participants, with 2,000 in the United States, 2,000 in the United Kingdom, and 1,000 respondents each in France, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Singapore, and China. Dynatrace announced several findings, chiefly:

"On average, consumers experience 1.5 digital performance problems every day, and 62% of people fear the number of problems they encounter, and the frequency, will increase due to the rise of IoT."

That seems like plenty of poor performance. Some findings were specific to travel, healthcare, and in-home retail sectors. Regarding travel:

"The digital performance failures consumers are already experiencing with everyday technology is potentially making them wary of other uses of IoT. 85% of respondents said they are concerned that self-driving cars will malfunction... 72% feel it is likely software glitches in self-driving cars will cause serious injuries and fatalities... 84% of consumers said they wouldn’t use self-driving cars due to a fear of software glitches..."

Regarding healthcare:

"... 62% of consumers stated they would not trust IoT devices to administer medication; this sentiment is strongest in the 55+ age range, with 74% expressing distrust. There were also specific concerns about the use of IoT devices to monitor vital signs, such as heart rate and blood pressure. 85% of consumers expressed concern that performance problems with these types of IoT devices could compromise clinical data..."

Regarding in-home retail devices:

"... 83% of consumers are concerned about losing control of their smart home due to digital performance problems... 73% of consumers fear being locked in or out of the smart home due to bugs in smart home technology... 68% of consumers are worried they won’t be able to control the temperature in the smart home due to malfunctions in smart home technology... 81% of consumers are concerned that technology or software problems with smart meters will lead to them being overcharged for gas, electricity, and water."

The findings are a clear call to IoT makers to improve the performance, security, and reliability of their internet-connected devices. To learn more, download the full Dynatrace report titled, "IoT Consumer Confidence Report: Challenges for Enterprise Cloud Monitoring on the Horizon."


Survey: Complexities And Consumer Fears With Checking Credit Reports For Errors

Many consumers know that they should check their credit reports yearly for errors, but most don't. A recent survey found much complexity and fears surrounding credit reports. WalletHub surveyed 500 adults in the United States during July, and found:

  • 84 percent of survey respondents know that they should check their credit reports at least once each year
  • Only 41 percent of respondents said they check their credit reports
  • 27 percent said they don't have the time to check their credit reports
  • 14 percent said they are afraid to see the contents of their credit reports

WalletHub found that women were twice as likely as men to have the above fear. Millennials were five times as likely than Baby Boomers to have this fear. More findings are listed below.

It is important for consumers to understand the industry. Inaccurate credit report can lower your credit score, the overall number used to indicate your credit worthiness. A low credit score can cost you money: denied credit applications, or approved loans but with higher interest rates. The errors in credit reports can include another person's data co-mingled with yours (obviously, that should never happen), a dead person's data co-mingled with yours, or a credit report that doesn't accurately reflect a loan you truly paid off on time and in full.

A 2013 study by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found problems with credit reports accuracy. First, 26 percent of participants identified errors in their credit reports. So, one in four consumers were affected. Plus, of the 572 credit reports where errors were identified, 399 reports (70%) were modified by a credit reporting agency, and 211 (36%) resulted in a credit score changed. So, finding and reporting errors is beneficial for consumers. Plus, a report in 2013 by the 60 Minutes television news magazine listed problems with the dispute process: failures by the largest three credit reporting agencies to correct errors reported by consumers on their credit reports.

There are national and regional credit reporting agencies. The three national credit reporting agencies include Experian, Equifax, andTransUnion. Equifax operates a secondary consumer reporting agency focused solely upon the telecommunications industry and broadband internet services.

Credit reporting agencies get their data from a variety of sources including data brokers. So, their business model is based upon data sharing. Just about anyone can set up and operate a credit reporting agency. No special skills nor expertise are required. Credit reporting agencies make money by selling credit reports to lenders. Credit reports often contain errors. For better or worse regarding security, credit reporting agencies historically have outsourced work, sometimes internationally.

The industry and executives have arguably lackadaisical data security approaches. A massive data breach at Equifax affected about 143 million persons in 2017. An independent investigation of that breach found a length list of data security flaws and failures at Equifax. To compound matters, the Internal Revenue Service gave Equifax a no-bid contract in 2017.

The industry has a spotty history. In 2007, Equifax paid a $2.7 million fine for violating federal credit laws. In 2009, it paid a $65,000 fine to the state of Indiana for violating the state's security freeze law. In 2012, Equifax and some of its customers paid $1.6 million to settle allegations of improper list sales. A data breach at Experian in 2015 affected 15 million wireless carrier customers. In 2017, Equifax and TransUnion paid $23.1 million to settle allegations of deceptive advertising about credit scores.

See the graphic below for more findings from the WalletHub survey.

2018 Credit Report Complexity Survey by WalletHub. Click to view larger version


How Well Do Americans Distinguish Facts From Opinions? People With These 3 Skills Do The Best

The current fast-paced news environment, multitude of online sources, and the rise of "fake news" all place a premium upon being able to distinguish facts from opinions. And some opinions are also rumors or lies. Nobody wants to be duped as this shooter was in the Washington pizzeria attack in 2016. Nobody wants to waste their votes based upon misinformation.

How well do people in the United States distinguish facts from opinions? Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey to determine:

"... whether member of the public can recognize news as factual – something that’s capable of being proved or disproved by objective evidence – or as an opinion that reflects the beliefs and values of whoever expressed it."

Overall findings were not encouraging:

"The main portion of the study, which measured the public’s ability to distinguish between five factual statements and five opinion statements, found that a majority of Americans correctly identified at least three of the five statements in each set. But this result is only a little better than random guesses. Far fewer Americans got all five correct, and roughly a quarter got most or all wrong."

The survey of 5,035 U.S. adults was conducted between February 22 and March 8, 2018. Another key finding: people with certain skills outperformed others who lacked those skills:

"Those with high political awareness, those who are very digitally savvy and those who place high levels of trust in the news media are better able than others to accurately identify news-related statements as factual or opinion... 36% of Americans with high levels of political awareness (those who are knowledgeable about politics and regularly get political news) correctly identified all five factual news statements, compared with about half as many (17%) of those with low political awareness. Similarly, 44% of the very digitally savvy (those who are highly confident in using digital devices and regularly use the internet) identified all five opinion statements correctly versus 21% of those who are not as technologically savvy... Trust in those who do the reporting also matters in how that statement is interpreted. Almost four-in-ten Americans who have a lot of trust in the information from national news organizations (39%) correctly identified all five factual statements, compared with 18% of those who have not much or no trust. "

Pew Research. Survey findings. The politically aware, digitally savvy, and those more trusting of the news media fare better at distinguishing facts from opinions. Click to view larger version See the table on the right for details about the findings, which also apply across political parties:

"Both Republicans and Democrats show a propensity to be influenced by which side of the aisle a statement appeals to most. For example, members of each political party were more likely to label both factual and opinion statements as factual when they appealed more to their political side."

The study also investigated whether the news source brand affected person's abilities to distinguish facts from opinions:

"Overall, attributing the statements to news outlets had a limited impact on statement classification... Members of the two parties were as likely as each other to correctly classify the factual statements when no source was attributed or when USA Today or The New York Times was attributed. Labeling statements with a news outlet had no impact on how Republicans or Democrats classified the opinion statements."

When the source was attributed to Fox News, "Republicans were modestly more likely than Democrats to accurately classify the three factual statements... correspondingly, Democrats were modestly less likely than Republicans to do so.

Another finding:

"When Americans see a news statement as factual, they overwhelmingly also believe it to be accurate. This is true for both statements they correctly and incorrectly identified as factual, though small portions of the public did call statements both factual and inaccurate."

Many people I know strongly believe that persons in the other political party are misinformed and/or misled by their reliance upon opinions, rumors, and inaccurate information; while persons in their political party are uniquely informed without reliance upon opinions, rumors, and inaccurate information. We now know that belief isn't accurate.


Report: Social Media Use in 2018

There has been plenty of controversy recently surrounding social media: job advertisements which exclude older workers, concerns that social media threaten democracies, transparency concerns about political advertisements, censorship applied inconsistently, politicians blocking constituents, promises to do better by Facebook, and more. Given these issues, it's reasonable to ask: who uses social media? Which sites? Has this changed over time? Would any users stop using social media?

The Pew Research Center recently released its latest report, "Social Media Use in 2018." Key findings:

"Facebook remains the primary platform for most Americans. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) now report that they are Facebook users, and roughly three-quarters of those users access Facebook on a daily basis. With the exception of those 65 and older, a majority of Americans across a wide range of demographic groups now use Facebook... The video-sharing site YouTube – which contains many social elements, even if it is not a traditional social media platform – is now used by nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults and 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds... Some 78% of 18- to 24-year-olds use Snapchat, and a sizeable majority of these users (71%) visit the platform multiple times per day. Similarly, 71% of Americans in this age group now use Instagram and close to half (45%) are Twitter users... Pinterest remains substantially more popular with women (41% of whom say they use the site) than with men (16%). LinkedIn remains especially popular among college graduates and those in high-income households. Some 50% of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn, compared with just 9% of those with a high school diploma or less. The messaging service WhatsApp is popular in Latin America, and this popularity also extends to Latinos in the United States – 49% of Hispanics report that they are WhatsApp users, compared with 14% of whites and 21% of blacks."

The report was based on telephone interviews of 2,002 adults (18 years of age or older) living in the United States. The interviews were conducted during Jan. 3 - 10, 2018, and included 500 respondents via landline telephones, and 1,502 respondents via mobile phones. The survey was conducted by interviewers under the direction of Abt Associates.

A couple charts highlight the key findings:

Pew Research Center. Social Media use in 2018. Site use by age groups. Click to view larger version

Pew Research Center. Social Media Use in 2018. Reciprocity usage. Click to view larger version

Pew Research also found:

"... the share of social media users who say these platforms would be hard to give up has increased by 12 percentage points compared with a survey conducted in early 2014. But by the same token, a majority of users (59%) say it would not be hard to stop using these sites, including 29% who say it would not be hard at all to give up social media."

View more information and details in the full report at the Pew Research Center site.


Survey: United States Citizens Don't Know Their Basic Constitutional Rights

The Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) announced the results of its latest annual Constitution Day Civics Survey -- how well United States citizens know their Constitutional rights. The latest survey was conducted August 9 to 13 and included 1,013 adults. Main findings:

"1. More than half of Americans (53 percent) incorrectly think it is accurate to say that immigrants who are here illegally do not have any rights under the U.S. Constitution;

2. More than a third of those surveyed (37 percent) can’t name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment; and

3. Only a quarter of Americans (26 percent) can name all three branches of government."

About the rights of undocumented immigrants, the incorrect belief is held by more conservatives (67 percent) compared to moderates (48 percent) and liberals (46 percent). The APPC explained:

"In fact, immigrants who are in the United States illegally share some constitutional protections with U.S. citizens. More than a century ago, in Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), a case involving a Chinese immigrant, the Supreme Court ruled that non-citizens were entitled to due process rights under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. Other cases have expanded upon those rights..."

A tiny bit of good news in the survey results:

"Most respondents, though not all, know that under the Constitution, U.S. citizens who are atheists or Muslim have the same rights as all other citizens. Seventy-nine percent of respondents know it is accurate to say that U.S. citizens who are atheists have the same rights as other citizens, and 76 percent know it is accurate to say that citizens who are Muslim have the same rights as other citizens."

About how well (or not) citizens' know their rights under the First Amendment (bold emphasis added):

"Nearly half of those surveyed (48 percent) say that freedom of speech is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment. But, unprompted, 37 percent could not name any First Amendment rights. And far fewer people could name the other First Amendment rights: 15 percent of respondents say freedom of religion; 14 percent say freedom of the press; 10 percent say the right of assembly; and only 3 percent say the right to petition the government... Contrary to the First Amendment, 39 percent of Americans support allowing Congress to stop the news media from reporting on any issue of national security without government approval. That was essentially unchanged from last year..."

So, many Americans fail to understand the law of the land -- the U.S. Constitution -- and some naively (or stupidly) support actions to restrict their rights.

Are things getting better or worse? In a 2011 survey by the APPC, barely half of United States citizens (51 percent) knew that a two-thirds majority vote by Congress is needed to overturn a presidential veto. In a 2015 survey by the APPC, about one in ten Americans (12 percent) said that the Bill of Rights guarantees pet ownership. It doesn't. A quick comparison across the years:

Survey Result (% of People) 2011 2015 2017
Correctly named all 3 branches of government 38 31 26
Unable to name 1 branch of government 33 32 33

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania said:

"Protecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution presupposes that we know what they are. The fact that many don’t is worrisome... These results emphasize the need for high-quality civics education in the schools and for press reporting that underscores the existence of constitutional protections."

I agree. These results are embarrassing, too. What do you think?