Cyber Landscape of Trust, Fear and Surveillance Concerns: How Slovenians Around the Globe Perceive the Cyberspace
Purpose:
The purpose of this paper is to study the differences between countries regarding their residents’ trust in government, fear of government intrusions into their privacy and government surveillance concerns in the cyberspace.
Design/Methods/Approach:
A survey has been conducted to capture the perceptions of Slovenians around the globe. Respondents from 58 countries were reached (n = 629) although the results were reported only for countries with at least three respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample and measured variables. Graphic illustrations made with MapChart are used to visualize the results.
Findings:
The findings of our study show that perceptions of trust in government, fear of government intrusions into the privacy of country residents and government surveillance concerns vary from country to country. Countries are ranked according to these three criteria. The average trust in government seems to be relatively low. It appears that respondents moderately fear government intrusions into their social network accounts and seem to be concerned about government surveillance over their online activities.
Research Limitations / Implications:
The research contributes to an understanding of the perceptions of Slovenians around the world of trust in government, fear of government intrusions and government surveillance concerns. Although a limited number of countries was reached, the results present some interesting insights into different regions of the world. The study targeted the population of Slovenians around the world thus the readers should be extremely cautious when trying to generalize the results, also due to snowball sampling employed.
Originality/Value:
This paper presents one of the first studies on perceptions of Slovenians around the world regarding their trust in the government of the country of their residence, fear of government intrusions into their privacy and their government surveillance concerns.
UDC: 342.7:004.738.5
Keywords: cyber space, Slovenians abroad, migrant, emigrant, immigrant, expatriate, wiretap, supervision