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Just published: Privacy and Security Perceptions of European Citizens: A Test of the Trade-off Model

Friedewald, Michael, Marc van Lieshout, Sven Rung, Merel Ooms, and Jelmer Ypma, “Privacy and Security Perceptions of European Citizens: A Test of the Trade-off Model“, in Jan Camenisch, Simone Fischer-Hübner, and Marit Hansen (eds.), Privacy and Identity Management for the Future Internet in the Age of Globalisation: 9th IFIP WG 9.2, 9.5, 9.6/11.7, 11.4, 11.6/SIG 9.2.2 International Summer School, Patras, Greece, September 7-12, 2014, Revised Selected Papers, Springer, Heidelberg, Berlin, 2015, pp. 39-53. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-18621-4_4

This paper considers the relationship between privacy and security and, in particular, the traditional ”trade-off” paradigm that argues that citizens might be willing to sacrifice some privacy for more security. Academics have long argued against the trade-off paradigm, but these arguments have often fallen on deaf ears. Based on data gathered in a pan-European survey we show that both privacy and security are important to European citizens and that there is no significant correlation between people’s valuation of privacy and security.