26 September 2023

Australians lose trust as pandemic takes its toll

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Australians are less trusting of how Governments and companies use their private data according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU).

Following more than a year of using check-in apps during the COVID-19 pandemic the ANU has uncovered that people’s trust in major institutions to maintain data privacy fell from an average of 5.70 out of 10 to 5.49 between May 2020 and August 2021.

Study co-author from the ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods, Nicholas Biddle said that while the decline may seem small, it was significant.

“This is especially the case as the pandemic, lockdowns and the use of apps for contact tracing continued and even intensified in some cases,” Professor Biddle said.

“Our analysis, covering a time when much of the east coast of Australia was living in lockdown, shows Australians were starting to get more wary about how their private data from check-in apps might be used by major institutions, including Governments and corporations.

“The organisations that experienced the biggest decrease in trust were the Federal Government, State and Territory Governments, social media companies and companies people used for online purchases.”

Professor Biddle said however, trust in institutions to maintain data privacy still remained higher than what it was before the pandemic, sitting at 4.78 in October 2018.

He said Australians also expressed an increase in concern about the overall security of personal data and information, jumping from 20.82 to 21.40 on a scale of seven to 28 over the same period.

“In another really fascinating finding, the majority of Australians who expressed low trust in how institutions use their data, 54.2 per cent, said they always use check-in apps,” he said.

“While this is quite a fair bit lower than those who have high trust in institutions, 68.5 per cent, it shows that, despite their concerns, many Australians are doing the right thing and what they have been asked to do by Governments to help keep each other and their communities safe during the pandemic,” Professor Biddle said.

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