Anton Sizov spoke at the Faculty of Social Sciences scientific seminar
On November 27, the HSE Moscow campus hosted the Faculty of Social Science research seminar 'Between Scylla and Charybdis: What Determines Russians' Attitudes Toward Personal Data Collection?' The seminar presented the research findings of the initial project group 'Trust and Attitudes toward Government Electronic Services and Data Collection Technologies.' ANR-Lab research assistant Anton Sizov actively participated in the group's research and presentation.
Anton, along with group leader Andrey Akhremenko, Maria Rodionova, and Polina Sokolova, presented research conducted by the group over the past year. Specifically, these included two online factorial experiments on samples of up to 3,000 respondents from all regions of Russia. The colleagues were able to determine how various factors (the type of data collected, surveillance agents, processing methods, etc.) influence various aspects of Russians' attitudes toward the collection of personal data, from emotional reactions to risk assessment and control over such collection. A separate experiment focused on the factors determining various aspects of attitudes toward facial recognition cameras. Taken together, the experiments provided a comprehensive understanding of Russians' attitudes toward surveillance in both physical and virtual spaces.
To provide a more comprehensive interpretation of the quantitative research results, the colleagues turned to qualitative methodology. A series of interviews revealed that Russians prefer to have their data processed by programs or AI due to fears of opportunistic behavior and the associated risk of data leakage. At the same time, they are concerned about who will be held accountable for the decisions made by algorithms. Paradoxically, despite their distrust of manual data processing, the more humane citizens perceive technology, the more positively they view AI surveillance.
Finally, Anton Sizov and Maria Rodionova conducted a meta-analysis of published studies on attitudes toward surveillance over the past 25 years from various countries. The study not only compared the effects found in Russian samples with the results of earlier studies but also demonstrated how the type of political regime moderates the relationship between attitudes toward surveillance and concerns about privacy and security.
The results presented by the colleagues sparked a lively discussion among the participants of the scientific seminar. Andrey Melville, the Faculty of Social Sciences' academic director, discussed with the participants the specifics of measuring the democratic nature of political systems and the methodological challenges of studying sensitive topics. Mikhail Mironyuk, the Faculty of Social Sciences' first deputy dean, provided a detailed commentary on the research results, comparing them with earlier studies from Western countries and noting the volatility of attitudes toward observation. All participants noted the comprehensive nature of the work and the potential for the team's continued research. Denis Stukal, the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, also echoed the positive comments and emphasized the faculty's strong interest in conducting such comprehensive studies.