Our reference: 96-0340-01RM

Your reference:

Mr David Mason
Director
Disability Policy Unit
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
Level 8, Picadilly Tower
131 Castlereagh Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Dear Mr Mason,

Thank you for inviting this Office to contribute to this reference.

We do not have much information particular to people with a disability or older people. However, we have put together some information about attitudes to online privacy that is relevant to the issue of access to new technologies.

Surveys conducted by this office and other organisations in Australia and overseas suggest that many people regard the use of computers as a threat to their privacy. For example,

• Surveys conducted by the Federal Privacy Commissioner of community attitudes towards privacy indicate that computers are seen as a major threat to privacy. Seventy per cent of respondents felt that computers are reducing the level of privacy in Australia and eighty per cent think computers have made it easier for confidential information to fall into the wrong hands. (See Information Paper Number Three – Community Attitudes to Privacy, August 1995, HREOC).
• A Roy Morgan survey conducted in August 1999 indicates that fifty-six percent of Australians are worried about invasion of privacy issues created by new information technologies. (See www.roymorgan.com/polls/1999/3221)
• In a survey conducted by MasterCard International in 1996 on attitudes of the Australian public to privacy, particularly in relation to payment systems, eighty per cent of respondents perceived Government agencies having computer access to networks of personal information as being a threat to privacy. (See MasterCard International, Privacy and Payments – A Study of Attitudes of the Australian Public to Privacy, Figure 3, page 12).
• A number of surveys conducted in the US indicate (in summary) that privacy is seen as the primary consumer issue facing the internet. A considerable proportion of net users sees the internet as a threat to their privacy, particularly in the age group eighteen to twenty-nine. Consumer concerns about privacy inhibit electronic commerce. According to a poll of internet users conducted in 1998 by Louis Harris & Associates and Alan Westin for Business Week, seventy eight per cent of users said they would use the internet more if privacy were guaranteed.

Buying goods and services on the intenet depends very heavily on the use of credit cards for payment. It also relies on people giving their address so that the goods can be delivered. However, there is some evidence to indicate that people are least willing to provide this kind of information on the internet. For example,

• An opinion survey conducted for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data in Hong Kong showed that the information people were most concerned about giving on the internet was information about credit card and ID card. There was only slightly less concern about telephone number and address and there was increasing levels of willingness to provide information about age, email address, occupation and sex.
• The 10^th Annual GVU user survey conducted in October 1998 found that seventy per cent of consumers cited privacy concerns as the primary reason for not registering demographic information. (See www.gvu.gatech.edu).

You would also be aware of the recently released survey conducted by Freehill Hollingdale and Page. I hope that this information is of some help to your inquiry. If you would like to discuss any of information further, do not hesitate to contact me on extension 695.

Yours sincerely

Robin McKenzie
Senior Policy Officer
March 2000