This article challenges suggestions that citizens should accept digital surveillance technologies (DSTs) and trade their privacy for better security. Drawing on data from nine EU countries, this research shows that citizens’ support for DSTs varies not only depending on the way their data are used but also depending on their views of the security agency operating them. Using an institutional trustworthiness lens, this research investigates three DST cases—smart CCTV, smartphone location tracking, and deep packet inspection—that present escalating degrees of privacy risk to citizens. The findings show that the perceived benevolence of security agencies is essential to acceptability in all three cases. For DSTs with greater privacy risk, questions of competence and integrity enter citizens' assessments.

中文翻译：

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对我们有什么好处？仁慈、国家安全和数字监控

本文对公民应该接受数字监控技术 (DST) 并用他们的隐私换取更好的安全性的建议提出质疑。这项研究利用来自九个欧盟国家的数据，表明公民对 DST 的支持不仅取决于其数据的使用方式，还取决于他们对运营这些数据的安全机构的看法。本研究使用机构可信度的视角，调查了三个 DST 案例——智能闭路电视、智能手机位置跟踪和深度数据包检查——这些案例给公民带来了不断升级的隐私风险。调查结果表明，在所有三种情况下，安全机构感知到的善意对于可接受性至关重要。对于隐私风险更大的 DST，能力和诚信问题会进入公民的评估。