Online survey to collect the views of internet users regarding personal information

One of the key changes in societal trends and lifestyles witnessed over the past few years has been the move on-line of many consumers and the way they have become increasingly sophisticated in their media consumption habits. When visiting a website users are often asked to give personal information. The website generally asks users' permission to use this information, a process called the obtaining of consent. The CONSENT project, co-ordinated by the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen, seeks to examine how consumer behaviour and commercial practices are changing the role of consent in the processing of personal data.

The CONSENT project has launched an online survey across all of Europe to collect the views of internet users. Responses to this survey will be studied and feedback obtained will be taken into consideration when preparing policy briefs for the European Commission.

Consumer consent is a fundamental value on which the European market economy is based. The project studies the way consumer consent is obtained in popular user-generated online services such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.The commercial success of these online services depends to a large extent on the disclosure by their users of substantial amounts of personal data.

“This is a real opportunity for online users to influence the way how things are run on the internet since the results of the survey will be taken into consideration when preparing new European policies and laws about internet use” argue Prof Joseph Cannataci and Prof Jeanne Pia Mifsud Bonnici who are leading the CONSENT project.

By participating in this survey, participants have an opportunity to influence the direction and content of new European policies and laws about internet use. The survey in Dutch (and also in English and a number of other European languages) is available at http://bit.ly/Survey-CONSENT

The CONSENT project groups 19 partners from 13 countries and is being supported with €2.6 million from the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme.The project commenced in May 2010 and as is expected to run until April 2013.

Further information:

On CONSENT project: http://www.consent.law.muni.cz/

Prof J.A. Cannataci - http://www.rug.nl/staff/j.a.cannataci/index

Prof J.P Mifsud Bonnici - http://www.rug.nl/staff/g.p.mifsud.bonnici/index