Mistrust by German Internet users of government and corporate data processing increased by nine percentage points in 2013 over 2011, but only a minority reported they had changed how they manage their personal data.
Google Trends suggested a chilling effect that varied by country on users’ propensity to issue search queries that might “get them into trouble” with the U.S. government. However, such public-opinion snapshots derived through ad hoc surveys were unable to capture consumers’ volatile and ephemeral reactions.
Annual polls provide only coarse temporal resolution, when continuous records of behaviors are needed to measure
the effect of an event like the PRISM revelation. Privacy surveys also suffer from such shortcomings as respondents’
lack of commitment, leading to post hoc rationalizations and socially desirable but unreliable answers.