Has the NSA pushed people to finally do something about their privacy concerns?

By September 13, 2013Privacy

Screen Shot 2013-09-13 at 08.30.49

Annotations
A - DontTrack.us
B - SF billboard
C - DontBubble.us
D - TIME's Top 50 Websites
E - USV investment
F - Visual Refresh
G - Google privacy policy change
H - Washington Post profile
I - Surveillance revelations

 

 

The chart above shows that query volume on privacy friendly search engine DuckDuckGo has risen dramatically since the NSA scandal broke.

It has been the case for some time now that when asked people said they cared deeply about privacy but that there was no evidence of that caring in their actions. In fact despite saying they were worried about misuse of their personal data people continued to share more data on social media and use more services which captured their personal data thus increasing their exposure to identity theft and other abuses.

This data suggests the NSA scandal is pushing large numbers of people to a tipping point. If so we may be approaching the watershed moment many privacy advocates have been predicting for some time.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

 

 

 

  • Andrew Thomson

    Interesting. May well spark a technological arms race between government agencies and start-ups trying to protect people’s privacy (Kim Dotcom is planning a privacy VC fund). BTW, there’s also a Dutch company called Ixquick that seem to have slightly higher search volumes that DuckDuckGo – https://startpage.com/traffic/

  • http://www.theequitykicker.com brisbourne

    Thanks Andrew.

Nic Brisbourne
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