From the Globe and Mail: “‘Tis the season to be suspicious”
According to a study released today, 32 days before Christmas, by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft, 40 per cent of Canadians are so concerned about security that they will not shop on-line for Christmas gifts…The study asked respondents about the types of on-line security products they use, their greatest on-line security fears and their familiarity with threats such as “phishing.”
These people are dumbasses.
First of all, “phishing” has nothing to do with online shopping, unless you buy things from sites advertised in spam. This is akin to paying the $100 “processing fee” for the free vacation that the nice lady just called you about, even though you don’t remember entering any contests.
Second, you run a FAR greater risk of fraud or theft every time you give your credit card number to Ticketmaster over the phone, or hand your card to a waiter in a restaurant.
But the biggest dumbasses are the people who sponsored the survey, and the Globe who published the result under a scare headline. If 40% of people are so concerned that they won’t be shopping online, it’s reasonable (though not definitive) to think that 60% of people *aren’t* concerned enough to avoid shopping online.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 
Well, it could be that the pollster they engaged has “pushed” the responses in a certain direction. For example, if they put “…rate your concern on a scale of 1 to 5 whether you are worried about computer fraud” a lot of people gravitate toward the middle ground of three on that scale. Then when they collapse the data they take those relatively indifferent people and lump them into the “concerned” category. I am sure the question was worded differently but I have done my share of wording survey questions and data analysis in the past and there is generally enough flexibility you can can help substantiate sensational like claims if you really want to (even though maybe people do not feel like that). Especially if the person paying for it is looking for something interesting. My 2 cents….
I just assume that pollsters do this. But in this case, while I don’t think they came up with the answer they were hoping for (since only 40% said they’d stay away from online shopping), I think they still used the scary headline.
Again, I’d hardly expect otherwise from the pollsters or the sponsoring company who has an agenda to push, but it kinda makes the Globe look foolish.