Politics and Privacy–Americans Share Their Trust and Fear 

U.S. citizens trust President-elect Biden with their personal privacy over President Trump, while many others don’t think either cares about their privacy.

January 18, 2021 — Americans think President-elect Biden (41.0%) cares more about their personal digital privacy than President Trump (30.4%), while nearly one quarter (22.1%) don’t think either one cares at all. This is according to the 2021 Politics and Digital Privacy Study from NordVPN, which asked 1,000 American adults to share their concerns and preferences about their personal online/digital privacy and who should regulate it.

Big Tech and Platforms

When it comes to big tech, 40.1% of Americans think governments should be allowed to break up big tech, 25.8% said they shouldn’t, and the rest said they don’t know enough about it. Moreover, nearly two-thirds (62.6%) think the government should be allowed to fine big tech for the way they collect and share data.

Interestingly for platform privacy trends, while more than three times as many Trump voters started using Parler more during the pandemic than did Biden voters, nearly twice as many Trump voters were more concerned about their privacy on Parler vs. Biden voters. Additionally, Trump voters started using Facebook more during the pandemic than did Biden voters, and Trump voters were slightly more concerned about their privacy on Facebook vs. Biden voters.

#Disinformation

And almost two-thirds (64.8%) of Americans want big tech to remove disinformation from their platforms. Removing disinformation increases to 79.2% for those who voted for Biden and decreases to 58.5% for those who voted for Trump.

Legislation 

Regarding privacy legislation, 37.0% of Americans want net neutrality reinstated (48.1% for Biden voters and 34.2% for Trump voters), while 13.7% said they do not want reinstatement, and 49.3% feel they don’t know enough about it to choose a side. Slightly more than half think the EU should pass the Digital Services Act (61.6% for Biden voters and 47.6% for Trump voters), and another 50.2% want the U.S. to do something similar for its citizens (61.1% for Biden voters and 46.8% for Trump voters).

“The European stance will give a positive push to more than economic integrity alone. It will also have a positive impact on the freedom of the internet in general,” stated Daniel Markuson, digital privacy expert at NordVPN. “However, these changes might increase the demand for privacy tools, and consumers will start equipping themselves with enterprise-grade VPN and communication tools to keep their private lives safe.”

Us Against the World

While Biden and Trump voters differ on many privacy topics, both agree that the U.S. does the best to protect its citizens’ privacy vs. other global leaders. Overall, 47.9% rank the U.S. as the best country at protecting privacy (with Biden voters at 48.8% and Trump voters at 51.5%). Canada (9.6%) was a distant second best. Other countries that Americans ranked for offering the best privacy of their own citizens include:

• 7.9% – Japan
• 7.8% – EU (European Union)
• 5.2% – UK
• 4.9% – China
• 4.8% – Australia

When asked who poses the biggest threat to their cybersecurity, those surveyed said independent hackers (35.4%), followed by China (23.7%) and Russia (18.0%). Surprisingly, only 7.6% felt that big tech was a threat. The biggest threat for Biden voters is hackers (48.1%), while Trump voters fear China (34.2%) most for cybersecurity threats.

Finally, when asked who is most concerned about their online personal privacy compared to themselves, 31.7% said their own spouse/partner is most concerned, followed by family (29.8%) and friends (11.9%). Only 6.7% cited employers, and 3.5% think their neighbors are most concerned.

About Propeller Insights

Propeller Insights is a full-service market research firm based in Los Angeles, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies to measure and analyze marketplace and consumer opinions. Propeller conducted its national online survey for NordVPN of 1,007 U.S. adults between January 2-6, 2021. Survey responses were nationally representative of the U.S. population for age, gender, region and ethnicity. The maximum margin of sampling error was +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

About NordVPN
NordVPN is the world’s most advanced VPN service provider, used by over 14 million internet users worldwide. NordVPN provides double VPN encryption, malware blocking, and Onion Over VPN. The product is very user-friendly, offers one of the best prices on the market, has over 5,000 servers in 60 countries worldwide, and is P2P-friendly. One of the key features of NordVPN is the zero-log policy. For more information: nordvpn.com.