ABSTRACT
This paper investigates public attitudes towards privacy, data protection, surveillance and security in Croatia. The public opinion survey assesses the value privacy may have for the individuals and if privacy is recognized as a social and political value. Four principal groups of privacy violations are covered in the survey: information collection, information processing, information dissemination and invasion. Citizens’ awareness of the data protection issues and related confidence in government and business practices are examined as well. Furthermore, this paper investigates if public attitudes towards surveillance in Croatia are in favor of the “nothing to hide” argument. Based on empirical data, the findings indicate that there are three groups of Croatian citizens with different opinions: “pro-surveillance” oriented citizens; citizens concerned about being surveilled; and citizens concerned about data and privacy protection. Identified groups of citizens differ in demographics. Policy implications of the research results are discussed in the paper.
