Balance of private and public in the use of personal data in the digital network space
The relevance of the study is determined by the need to ensure the comprehensive protection of citizens’ personal data, since their disclosure can lead to significant reputational or financial damage. In this context, the analysis of the boundaries of public and private in public consciousness takes on a special meaning. In a mass and expert survey conducted on this issue, it was found that almost 2/3 of citizens were faced with the misuse of confidential information on the Internet. But most experts and participants in the mass survey are aware that Internet sites, social networks and search engines can collect data for web analytics. At the same time, most participants in the study consider it possible to transmit personal data to the authorities in a generalized form for making managerial decisions about the place of residence, age, marital situation, education and gender; the most closed for analysis were information on purchases and spending, geolocation and health. The privacy regime in social networks depends on the level of publicity of a person: for state employees, members of parties and public associations, representatives of science and education, it is higher than for ordinary citizens (for them it depends on knowledge of such a possibility of setting social networks). Most experts and ordinary citizens supported the possibility of introducing a ban on the disclosure on the Internet and social networks of information about service for military and police personnel, while similar measures are considered unacceptable for government officials, municipal employees, representatives of the public sector and deputies; only regarding judges, the opinion of the population and experts did not coincide: the former consider not acceptable, and the latter – possible. It can be assumed that the digitalization of society does not aggravate the problem of demarcation of private and public. However, a key tool for distinguishing between personal and public in the media space is the creation of a special regulatory framework.