- Prepared for - The Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner Level 8, 133 Castlereagh St SYDNEY, NSW 2000
- Prepared by - Roy Morgan Research
Printable version of this document
The Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner commissioned Roy Morgan Research to investigate community attitudes towards privacy. This was in part a replication of a similar study conducted in 2001. A nation-wide telephone study with a total of 1,507 adults was conducted in May 2004. Three of these questions were verified by re-asking them to a further 1214 respondents. The majority of questions were repeated from the 2001 survey. Respondents interviewed were representative of the adult population nationwide, and results were weighted by age, sex and region using census data.
Despite a small increase since the 2001 study, levels of knowledge about rights to protect privacy are still low, with only one in four respondents claiming to know an adequate amount or more.
Sixty percent claimed to be aware that Federal privacy laws existed, up from 43% in 2001. By contrast, only 34% of respondents were aware that the Federal Privacy Commissioner existed. When asked to whom they would report the misuse of their personal information, 29% said they didn't know. The remainder mentioned a number of different authorities or organisations, with 7% mentioning the Privacy Commissioner.
Respondents' level of knowledge about privacy was tested using the following statements. Percentages listed indicate the proportion of respondents who correctly identified each statement as false.
Just 23% of respondents correctly identified all three of these statements as false.
Eight in ten respondents (81%) believed customer details held by commercial organisations are often transferred or sold in mailing lists to other businesses.
The vast majority of respondents considered the first four hypothetical situations below to be an invasion of privacy, however the majority did not consider the fifth an invasion:
Just 11% of respondents stated they were not concerned about supplying any type of personal information to an organisation. Respondents are most reluctant to divulge details about finance (41%) and income (10%). The main reason for being reluctant to provide personal information was because they considered such requests an invasion of privacy rather than from fear of their personal information being misused or causing personal threat.
Fewer respondents in 2004 than in 2001 decided not to deal with a private company (33% in 2004, 42% in 2001) because of concerns over the protection or use of their personal information. The proportion who had decided not to deal with a charity remained consistent across the same time period (15% in 2004, 14% in 2001)
Over 6 in 10 respondents (61%) felt either angry and annoyed, or concerned when they receive unsolicited marketing material. Nineteen percent of respondents agreed that businesses should be allowed to use the electoral roll for marketing purposes, slightly less than the 22% who agreed in 2001. Forty four percent agreed that businesses should be able to use the White Pages for marketing, compared with 42% recorded in 2001. The question about using the White Pages for marketing was repeated to verify results in a context not linked to privacy. In this verification, 29% agreed to using the White Pages for marketing. See Appendix Two for more details.
While the quality of a product or service was rated as the most important element of customer service by respondents, respect for and protection of personal information was rated almost as highly. Twenty seven percent of respondents were willing to provide personal information in return for discounts, while 44% were willing to provide personal details in return for more efficient and personalised service.
Privacy policies are not necessarily being read, partly due to their length and complexity of information. Respondents were asked what aspects of a privacy policy are most important to be included in a summary policy document. How the information will be used was the most frequently nominated response (47%), followed by if and when the organisation will pass on the information (15%) and what information will be kept (15%).
Just over half (53%) of respondents were in favour of being issued with a unique number to be used for identification when accessing all Australian government services, slightly fewer (41%) were against.
The majority of respondents agreed governments should be allowed to cross reference or share information, but only in some circumstances (62%). One in ten respondents (9%) thought this should happen for any purpose, whereas nearly one in four respondents (24%) thought this should not happen under any circumstance.
To prevent or reduce crime (68%) was the scenario under which most respondents felt it was acceptable to cross reference information, followed by the purpose of updating basic information like address details (58%) and to reduce costs, or improve efficiency (51%).
Slightly more than half of respondents (57%) agreed that in order to enable the government to better track the use of health care services, individuals should have a number allocated to them for use when accessing any type of health service. This was higher amongst males (61%) than females (55%), and higher amongst respondents over 50 (62%) and 18-24 (61%), than those aged 25-34 (50%) or 35-49 (55%).
One possible use for such a unique identifier would be to create a national health database which could be accessed by a treating doctor anywhere in Australia. If such a database existed, 64% felt inclusion should be voluntary (cf. 66% in 2001), and 32% believed all medical records should be entered as a matter of course (cf. 28% in 2001). Males were more likely to feel all records should be entered as a matter of course (35%) than females (28%), and respondents over 50 were more likely to feel all records should be entered as a matter of course (37%) than 18-24 year old respondents (25%).
Almost two thirds of respondents (64%) felt permission should be sought before de-identified information is used for research purposes, with one third reporting that permission was not necessary (33%).
Females (68%) were more likely to believe that permission should be sought than males (59%). 18-24 year old respondents (71%) and respondents with lower levels of education were more likely to respond that permission should be sought (73% passed year 10 cf. 56% who have a degree).
Employers rights were examined over a number of issues, as detailed in the table below.
| Employer Behaviour | Whenever employers choose | Only when they suspect wrong-doing | Not at all | For training and quality control only | Only if necessary to ensure safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading Work Emails | 23% | 38% | 34% | ||
| Using Surveillance Equipment | 21% | 40% | 35% | ||
| Monitoring What is Typed Into an Employees Computer | 21% | 43% | 32% | ||
| Monitoring Phone Conversations | 5% | 25% | 33% | 35% | |
| Random Drug Testing | 23% | 59% | 16% |
The majority (85%) of respondents thought it was appropriate for employees to have access to their personal files, and (83%) also found it important that employers have a privacy policy which states their organisations views on employee privacy.
When using the internet, 62% of internet users have more concerns about the security of their personal details than usual (cf. 57% in 2001). Consistent with these findings, 67% reported having more concerns now than was the case two years ago.
Two thirds (67%) of respondents who have internet access at home reported that they at some point had read the privacy policy attached to an internet site, up from 55% in 2001. Fourteen percent of those who had read a policy felt more confident and secure about using the site as a result.
Forty one percent of respondents with internet access on their home PC claim to have their web browser currently set to reject cookies, and three in ten respondents admitted to having provided false information when filling out a form online. There were a variety of behaviours used to protect privacy online, including:
^top : Last Updated : 27 October 2004