Data set for the population survey “Attitudes towards big data practices and the institutional framework of privacy and data protection”

Abstract

The aim of this study is to gain insights into the attitudes of the population towards big data practices and the factors influencing them. To this end, a nationwide survey (N = 1,331), representative of the population of Germany, addressed the attitudes about selected big data practices exemplified by four scenarios, which may have a direct impact on the personal lifestyle. The scenarios contained price discrimination in retail, credit scoring, differentiations in health insurance, and differentiations in employment. The attitudes about the scenarios were set into relation to demographic characteristics, personal value orientations, knowledge about computers and the internet, and general attitudes about privacy and data protection. Another focus of the study is on the institutional framework of privacy and data protection, because the realization of benefits or risks of big data practices for the population also depends on the knowledge about the rights the institutional framework provided to the population and the actual use of those rights. As results, several challenges for the framework by big data practices were confirmed, in particular for the elements of informed consent with privacy policies, purpose limitation, and the individuals’ rights to request information about the processing of personal data and to have these data corrected or erased.