State surveillance in the digital age: Factors associated with citizens' attitudes towards trust registers

TL;DR

This study examines factors influencing Western citizens' attitudes towards trust registers like the Social Credit System, highlighting the roles of perceived usefulness, security, ease of use, and privacy concerns.

Contribution

It offers pioneering insights into Western attitudes towards trust registers and identifies key factors affecting acceptance, using a structural equation modeling approach.

Findings

Attitude is linked to perceived usefulness.

Perceived usefulness relates to security, ease of use, and privacy concerns.

Privacy concerns negatively impact perceived usefulness.

Abstract

This paper investigates factors related to the acceptance of trust registers (e.g., the Chinese Social Credit System - SCS) in Western settings. To avoid a negative connotation, we first define the concept of trust register which encompasses surveillance systems in other settings beyond China, such as FICO in the US. Then, we explore which factors are associated with people's attitude towards trust registers leaning on the technology acceptance and privacy concern theories. A cross-sectional survey among Slovenian Facebook and Instagram users (N=147) was conducted. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test the hypothesized associations between the studied constructs. Results indicate that attitude towards trust register is directly associated with perceived general usefulness of the trust register. Additionally, perceived general usefulness is associated with perceived usefulness of the trust register for ensuring national security and fighting crime, its ease of use, and privacy concern regarding data collection. As one of the first studies investigating attitude towards trust registers in a Western country, it provides pioneering insights into factors that may be relevant in case such registers would be implemented in a Western context, and provides some practical implications regarding messaging for would-be implementers of such systems.