Beliefs and attitudes of citizens in Slovenia towards smart surveillance and privacy

This document presents the Slovenia results of a qualitative study undertaken as part of the SMART project – “Scalable Measures for Automated Recognition Technologies” (SMART; G.A. 261727). The analysis and results are based on a set of 3 focus group discussions comprising of 28 participants from different age groups, which were held in order to examine the awareness, understanding, beliefs and attitudes of citizens towards smart surveillance and privacy. The discussions were conducted in line with a discussion guide consisting of different scenarios aimed at stimulating a discussion among participants. While some scenarios dealt with surveillance in everyday contexts likely to be encountered by the participants, other scenarios were hypothetical in nature and their aim was to elicit the participants’ feelings, beliefs and attitudes in relation to dataveillance, the massive integration of data from different sources and the “security versus privacy” trade-off.Scalable Measures for Automated Recognition Technologies (G.A. 267127). The project was co-financed by the European Union within the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013).peer-reviewe

The citizens’ perspective : awareness, feelings and acceptance of surveillance and surveillance systems for fighting crime in Slovenia. A quantitative study

This document presents the results for Slovenia within the framework of a larger study undertaken as part of the RESPECT project – “Rules, Expectations and Security through Privacy-enhanced Convenient Technologies” (RESPECT; G.A. 285582) – which was co-financed by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013). Analyses are based on a survey regarding the perceptions, feelings, attitudes and behaviours of citizens towards surveillance for the purpose of fighting crime, carried out amongst a quota sample that is representative of the population in Slovenia for age and gender. Responses were gathered, predominantly, through an online survey supplemented by a number of questionnaires administered in face to face interviews, in order to fulfil the quota and also reach those citizens who do not use the internet. The questionnaire consisted of 50 questions and was available online in all languages of the European Union between November 2013 and March 2014. The face to face interviews were carried out between December 2013 and February 2014. The Slovenian sample is based on the responses from 200 individuals who indicated Slovenia as their country of residence in the online survey or were administered the questionnaire face to face. As a result, the Slovenian respondents felt more insecure than secure in the presence of surveillance, and they indicated a strongly felt lack of trust in the protection of, and control over, personal information gathered via surveillance. Further, the majority of respondents also feel more unhappy than happy with the different types of surveillance investigated, and they feel most unhappy about surveillance taking place without them knowing about it. Analyses also indicate that whilst feeling happy or unhappy with surveillance is only weakly related to feeling more secure or insecure in the presence of surveillance, an increased belief in the effectiveness of laws regarding the protection of personal data gathered via surveillance may make citizens feel more secure. More research is needed to disentangle the relationships and effects between surveillance measures, feelings of security or insecurity, and citizens’ general quality of life feelings.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 285582.peer-reviewe