Biggest threat to privacy
MSNBC.com users were asked to explain in an essay-style section what they perceive as the biggest threat to their personal privacy. Government and corporations were equally criticized.

Many expressed discomfort with collection and sharing of data by companies. The three biggest threats to privacy, said one writer, were: “Corporations storing my Social Security number. Corporations selling my information to other corporations. Corporations accessing credit scores without my consent.”

Said another, “Credit card companies sharing information and then the new companies sending checks in my name to me hoping I will be dumb enough to cash them.”

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Criticisms of government practices tended to be a bit more philosophical, and nearly always invoked the privacy vs. security debate.

“Government intrusion into privacy on an ends-justifies-means rationale, willingness to violate constitutional protections to fight terrorism, general willingness to violate other people's rights if doing so makes us marginally safer,” one writer said.

Another writer said he felt most threatened by “Exaggerated worry about terrorists.” Another said simply, “The Patriot Act.”

But not every writer felt privacy’s biggest threat came from Big Brother.

For a few, the threat was much more local. One respondent, who wisely submitted his response anonymously, said the biggest threat to his privacy was right at home: “Marriage.”

Lost laptops a big concern
The MSNBC.com survey also examined sentiment about identity theft and about the flood of lost data and lost laptops that have filled technology news sections since last year. Some 90 million notices have gone out to consumers from companies and organizations indicating personal information has been lost or stolen. About 1 in 3 MSNBC.com readers who took the survey said they had received such a notice. Of those, 39 percent said they'd received nothing as compensation for the incident, and about 60 percent of that group said they were concerned about being the victims of identity theft.

Overall, 9 in 10 said they were concerned or very concerned about lost data, but concern about ID theft hasn’t led consumers to pull out their wallets. Only 1 in 10 respondents said they pay for a service to help them protect their privacy or their identity.

When asked to rank a list of potentially risky behaviors, consumers felt there was little difference between handing their credit cards to a waiter, using their credit card at a Web site, using a telephone to read e-mail, signing up for a supermarket discount card or using E-ZPass automatic toll payments. Online banking was judged slightly safer than many of those behaviors.

Filling out sweepstakes entries — a method commonly used by scam artists to find likely victims — was deemed a “most risky” behavior by 33 percent of respondents. But 23 percent said it wasn't risky and 21 percent rated it as mildly a neutral behavior.

Gullible Americans?
Such misplaced trust is another common trait among Americans, said Litan, who studies computer security trends and consumer sentiment at Gartner. U.S. consumers readily say they are skeptical of the government, for example, then turn around and say they are ready to provide their fingerprints anyway.

"Americans are trusting until they have a reason not to be trusting," she said. Unintended consequences of privacy lapses are almost impossible to predict, so they are easy to discount or ignore. Faced with the choice of some immediate benefit — say, a discount or speedier passage through a toll booth – and some uncertain privacy consequence, consumers pick immediate gratification almost every time.

“People can't predict the future,” she said. “So they are trusting.”

READ PART 3

‘La difference’ is stark in EU, U.S. privacy laws

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