Survey finds that a third of people would like to snoop on others' computers

In its monthly "big question" for March, antivirus firm Avira found that a third of the 6,623 respondents would like to snoop on other people's computers if they had the chance.

To find out how important the respect of other computer users' privacy was, they asked: "Be honest: would you like to secretly snoop on other people's computers?" Most of those surveyed stated that such an action would constitute a breach of privacy, with 65 percent of them saying that spying on other peoples' computers was taboo. These people clicked on the answer: "No, other people's privacy is too important for me."

The remaining third of those who participated in the survey (2331 people) saw the situation differently. They said they did not have any compunction when it came to looking at someone else's hard drives. Those who said they would like to snoop were also asked to indicate under what circumstances they might do so. 12 percent of them said they would snoop on their "loved one", followed by "strangers" at 9 percent and "friends" at 8 percent. The 4 percent of those who said they would snoop on "colleagues" at work would be running the risk of having legal action taken against them. Only a little less than 2 percent (125 people) said they would snoop on members of their family, which suggests that even those willing to snoop on others do have a sense that there is a breach of privacy in the process.

Tjark Auerbach, founder and executive director of Avira, commented on the results of March's big question: "Protecting your PC with a good password is all the more important, especially when you keep the password to yourself. To constitute a true barrier, the password should consist of at least six characters and contain letters, numbers, and special characters." In addition, he said modern encryption solutions should also be used by those who want to be sure that strangers cannot access their data. (Detlef Borchers)

(mba)