The Fate of Online Trust in the Next Decade
Many experts say lack of trust won’t hinder increased public reliance on the internet. Some expect trust to grow as tech and regulatory changes arise; others think it will worsen or maybe change entirely.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Search results for: “digital privacy”
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Theme 3: The information environment will improve because technology will help label, filter or ban misinformation and thus upgrade the public’s ability to judge the quality and veracity of content
Many respondents who said they hope for or expect an improvement in the information environment 10 years from now mentioned ways in which new technological and verification solutions might be implemented. A number of these proposed solutions include the hope that technology will be created to evaluate content – making it “accessible.” Technology moves fast […]
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The Future of Truth and Misinformation Online
Experts are split on whether the coming years will see less misinformation online. Those who foresee improvement hope for technological and societal solutions. Others say bad actors using technology can exploit human vulnerabilities.
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Theme 1: Trust will strengthen because systems will improve and people will adapt to them and more broadly embrace them
A plurality of respondents expect participation in online interactions to grow in the next decade. They cited a variety of reasons, including 1) continued improvement of global security and personal privacy in technical systems, as well as civic and industry support for social strategies, that will in turn build trust; and 2) people’s increased capacity […]
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Theme 2: The information environment will not improve because technology will create new challenges that can’t or won’t be countered effectively and at scale
Many respondents who expect no improvement in the information environment argue that certain actors in government,business and other individuals with propaganda agendas and special interests are turning technology to their favor in the spread of misinformation. There are too many of them and they are clever enough that they will continue to infect the online […]
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Americans and Cybersecurity
Many Americans do not trust modern institutions to protect their personal data – even as they frequently neglect cybersecurity best practices in their own personal lives.
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Theme 5: The less-than-satisfying current situation will not change much in the next decade
A noteworthy number of those responding to this canvassing are not convinced that much progress will be made in people’s existing attitudes about trust online. Ed Lyell, professor of business and economics at Adams State University, wrote, “Security is the key to which direction we go in trusting transactions to electronic form. Passwords are mostly […]
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Theme 1: The information environment will not improve. The problem is human nature
Misinformation and “fake news” have been around for as long as people have communicated. But today’s instant, low-budget, far-reaching communications capabilities have the potential to make the problem orders of magnitude more dangerous than in the past. Mankind has always lied, and always will; which is why the winners of wars get to write the […]
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About this canvassing of experts
The expert predictions reported here about the impact of the internet over the next 10 years came in response to one of eight questions asked by Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center in an online canvassing conducted between July 1 and August 12, 2016. This is the seventh “Future of the […]
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Theme 4: Some say blockchain could help; some expect its value might be limited
Trust is embedded in many things that foster relationships and transactions. Money is the prime example of a trust-infused artifact. People exchange it for other things of value because their governments say that their currencies are “backed” by the authority of those governments and, often, other governments. In days of yesteryear, money was tied to […]