The CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust polled people in 24 countries on their views about online privacy, Internet governance and concerns about Internet security.
Eighty-three percent of people surveyed believed affordable access to the Internet should be a basic human right, with the highest numbers coming from countries with a history of authoritarian rule.
Ninety-two percent of respondents in Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia and Tunisia and 90 percent in China said they agreed.
A combined 83 percent of people polled said the Internet was important for their future in terms of free speech and political expression, ranging from 72 percent of Canadians to 92 percent of Nigerians.
Two-thirds of respondents were more concerned about online privacy than they were a year ago -- but the results varied widely by nationality.
In Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, 46 percent of people polled said they were "much more concerned" about their online privacy, while only 18 percent of Europeans and 23 percent of North Americans felt the same.
Forty-eight percent of people who responded said their governments did a "good job" of securing the Internet.
Germans at 15 percent were the least likely to believe that private information on the Internet was "very secure" -- while Nigerians at 58 percent were the most likely.
The survey by the Centre for International Governance Innovation polled 23,326 Internet users in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States between Oct. 7 and Nov. 12.
©2014 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)
