Current legislation doesn’t do enough to protect people’s privacy

In the post-Snowden world, people are more concerned about their privacy than ever before. Technology not only provides us with an unprecedented amount of convenience, but also with an equal amount of privacy concerns. What’s more concerning, however, is the fact that government legislation does an unsatisfactory job of protecting us from these privacy threats. 

Internet users in countries such as France, Germany and the U.S. are increasingly worried about the impact technology has on privacy, and feel legal protections are insufficient. In 11 of the 12 countries surveyed as part of a report published by Microsoft on Monday, respondents said that technology’s effect on privacy was mostly negative. Most concerned were people in Japan and France, where 68 percent of the respondents thought technology has had a mostly negative impact on privacy. A majority want better legal protections and say the rights of Internet users should be governed by local laws irrespective of where companies are based. Internet users in India, Indonesia and Russia were the least concerned, according to the survey. In general, those in developing countries were less bothered.