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Danes grow less concerned about handing over data to Facebook

Although as many as one in six people in Denmark has limited their use of Facebook and other social media due to concerns about data use, the proportion has almost halved since 2015.

Danes grow less concerned about handing over data to Facebook
Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix

Despite reports of abuse of data by companies like Facebook – most notably the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which affected a limited number of people in Denmark – people in the Scandinavian country have become significantly less cautious about handing over digital details to social media firms, according to a Statistics Denmark analysis.

In 2015, 30 percent of all people asked by the stats agency said that they were concerned about handing over personal details to social media. That has fallen to 17 percent in 2019, Statistics Denmark writes in a press release on Monday.

The numbers come from the national statistics bureau’s survey on the population’s IT habits in 2019.

Over the four years, overall usage of social media in Denmark increased: 76 percent used one or more social media sites in 2019, compared to 60 percent in 2015.

Concerns over data security vary between age groups: people between the ages of 25-34 and 45-54 were the most concerned about data security in 2019, with 21 percent and 20 percent respectively expressing concerns.

The least sceptical was the 65-74 age group at 11 percent.

Around half of all people in that age category use social media, compared to 97 percent of 16-24-year-olds and 94 percent of people aged 25-34.

READ ALSO: How the elderly in Denmark are losing their money to online scammers

 

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Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany

Facebook says it has deleted the accounts, pages and groups linked to virus conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers in Germany who are vocal opponents of government restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany
An anti-vaccination and anti-Covid demo in Berlin on August 28th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christophe Gateau

With just 10 days to go before Germany’s parliamentary elections – where the handling of the pandemic by Angela Merkel’s goverment will come under scrutiny – Facebook said it had “removed a network of Facebook and Instagram accounts” linked to the so-called “Querdenker” or Lateral Thinker movement.

The pages posted “harmful health misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence”, the social media giant said in a statement.

It said that the people behind the pages “used authentic and duplicate accounts to post and amplify violating content, primarily focused on promoting the conspiracy that the German government’s Covid-19 restrictions are part of a larger plan to strip citizens of their freedoms and basic rights.”

The “Querdenker” movement, which is already under surveillance by Germany’s intelligence services, likes to portray itself as the mouthpiece of opponents
of the government’s coronavirus restrictions, organising rallies around the country that have drawn crowds of several thousands.

READ ALSO: Germany’s spy agency to monitor ‘Querdenker’ Covid sceptics

It loosely groups together activists from both the far-right and far-left of the political spectrum, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. And some of their rallies have descended into violence.

Social media platforms regularly face accusations that they help propagate misinformation and disinformation, particularly with regard to the pandemic and vaccines.

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