Privacy, censorship, data breaches and Internet freedom: The drivers of support and opposition to Dark Web technologies

Abstract

Do heightened privacy perceptions, censorship concerns and exposure to online crime affect people’s level of opposition to dual-use technologies such as the Dark Web? If they do, then how much do these factors actually drive baseline levels of opposition to the Dark Web? Do privacy and censorship concerns get amplified in regimes with significant Internet restrictions? Does Internet freedom itself affect people’s baseline levels of opposition to Tor and other Dark Web technologies? Using new survey data on 17,121 Internet users in 17 different countries, a series of mixed-effect order logit regressions reveal that privacy and censorship concerns are both significant predictors of less opposition to the Dark Web. Past exposure to online crime, in contrast, significantly increases opposition to the Dark Web. Interestingly, restrictions on Internet freedom do not amplify privacy and censorship concerns, but Internet freedom itself is related to baseline levels of opposition to the Dark Web forming an inverted-U-shaped pattern.