Data Collection: Sample Member Responses, Influences, and Perception of Data Security
Tamara Terry, McKinlay Jeannis, Dawn Thomas-Banks · 2011
As identity theft and data security breaches occur in the United States, in government and private organizations alike, both public opinion and sample members’ willingness to provide personal identifiable information are affected. Identity theft reported by households has increased by 23% from 2005 to 2007, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS; Baum & Langton, 2010). BJS reports that in 2007 alone, 7.9 million households—which accounts for 6.6% of all households in the United States—were victims of one or more types of identity theft. Public opinion is commonly formed by personal experience and events that are reported in the media. One of the most infamous security breaches occurred in 2006, when a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs laptop was stolen. It contained the names, Social Security Numbers, and dates of birth of more than 26 million veterans (Agency chief: Data on stolen VA laptop may have been erased, 2006). With identity theft rates increasing and security breaches being reported in the media, we perceive that research study participants are conscious of the risk and skeptical about providing personally identifiable information. In our presentation, we intend to demonstrate how identity theft and data security breaches in the United States may have influenced sample members’ willingness to provide personally identifiable information on a cross-sectional project that collected data in 2004 and 2008. We will analyze sample members’ responses to questions that attempted to obtain personal information such as Social Security Number, age, sex, income, employment status, and race. Both Web and telephone data collection modes were used.