Internet users fear privacy breaches

Potential and current users of the internet are more worried about the apparent lack of privacy than about any other aspect of the web, according to a recent global survey.

Most respondents claimed they were not concerned about general monitoring by governments, but were more afraid of corporates following their every move on the internet.

Two thirds of the 2096 respondents to a survey carried out in Italy, the US and Singapore by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), said they have ventured onto the web, but the majority agreed that internet users put their privacy at risk every time they go online.

Most respondents also claimed that the internet does not promote isolation. The study found that 47 per cent of users go online each week in the company of other household members, and the majority (88 per cent) said that the internet has neither caused them to reduce nor increase the amount of time spent with the people they live with.

"Everyone either loves or hates the internet, [and it is] certainly the most important communications technology of the generation to come," said Jeffrey Cole, director of the UCLA centre for communications policy.

The survey also suggested that the so-called digital divide may be a myth. Some 53 per cent of those polled who had not gone on to higher education are using the internet, as well as 60 per cent of respondents that earn between $15,000 and $49,000 a year (£10,000 and £34,000). A further 41 per cent of those that make less than $15,000 annually also go online.

The majority (89 per cent) of the respondents also believed that children spend the right amount of time online, and 70 per cent said that children's schoolwork is neither helped nor hindered by the internet. However, most people agreed that children could gain access to inappropriate material on the web.

Funded by companies including America Online, Microsoft, Walt Disney and Sony, the survey will be expanded to include 15 additional countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa over the next three to five years.