In January 2022, the Israel Internet Association (ISOC-IL) and Privacy Israel conducted a comprehensive survey to examine the Israeli public’s feelings and concerns regarding people’s right to privacy and threats presented by public and commercial bodies.
The survey was conducted in January 2022 by the Rushinek Institute among 1,025 respondents, constituting a representative sample of the Israeli population aged 18 and older.
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The public’s ability to control personal information online
64% of the people feel they have no control over their personal information online.
- More secular and traditional Jews (70%) expressed concern, compared to 58.8% of religious/ultra-Orthodox Jews and 53% of Arabs.
- Young respondents (aged 18-22) expressed the slightest concern, with only 50% feeling out of control of their personal information online (42% of them stated that they don’t feel out of control), compared to 62% among other age groups, and 71-73% among people aged 50+.
- This concern was particularly pronounced among people with average income (74%) and very high income (72%) compared to 62% of people with zero or below-average income.
The data tool embedded below demonstrate how the feeling of lack of control over personal information online varies according to demographic characteristics:
Public attitudes and expectations of privacy vis-à-vis the authorities
In this part of the survey, we asked respondents to rate their agreement with statements that reflect diverse perceptions and positions regarding the meaning of the right to privacy vis-à-vis state authorities.
Analyzing the data by demographic characteristics reveals the following findings:
- Fewer respondents from the Arab society agree with the statement that there’s an expectation of receiving information about the collection and use of personal data by state bodies (including the police, tax authorities, and municipalities), compared to Jewish respondents – 69-73% vs. 86-90%, respectively.
- However, the agreement rate among secular Arabs stands at 89%, compared to only 44% among religious Arabs. Among Jews, there’s hardly any gap between secular and religious (84% compared to 82%, respectively).
- Men are more bothered than women about the collection and use of personal information by parties – as to influence voting (74% vs. 66%), collection and use of personal data by municipalities (56% vs. 49%), and police search and seizure of computers and mobile phones (73% vs. 67%). In contrast, fewer men showed discomfort about information collection by small businesses (42% of the men are fine with it vs. 34% of the women).
- People aged 60+ show less interest in state-sanctioned information collection: 73% were interested in the issue compared to 81% or more among other age groups. 75% of the men aged 23-29 and 90% of the men aged 40-49 wanted to know about state-sanctioned information collection, compared to the opposite number among women: 85% of women aged 23-29 and 74% of women aged 40-49.
- People with zero income, as well as those with above-average income and high income, are less bothered by police search and seizure of computers and mobile phones (30-34% of them said they aren’t bothered by it) than people in other income categories (21-24%).
We also focused on the public’s fear that state authorities (municipalities, government ministries, law enforcement agencies, etc.) use personal information, including cross-referencing it with other personal information in the state’s possession, without their knowledge or consent.
Analyzing the data by demographic characteristics reveals the following findings:
- Men were more worried than women (61% compared to 53%, respectively).
- Residents of the south expressed a low sense of apprehension than others (47% of them were worried about cross-referenced information, compared with 53-61% in other areas).
- People with zero income and high income also expressed less concern (50-51% compared to 56-61% among other income categories).
- Among religious-ultra-Orthodox Jews, slightly more expressed lack of concern (23% weren’t worried about cross-referenced information, compared with 16-17% who weren’t concerned about it among secular and traditional Jews and Arabs).
Public attitudes and expectations of privacy vis-à-vis commercial companies
In this part of the survey, we asked respondents to rate their agreement with statements that reflect diverse perceptions and positions regarding the meaning of the right to privacy vis-à-vis commercial entities, including social networks.
Public attitudes and expectations of privacy vis-à-vis other bodies
In this part of the survey, we asked respondents to rate their agreement with statements that reflect diverse perceptions and positions regarding the meaning of the right to privacy vis-à-vis private entities in the public arena.
