Government Surveillance and Internet Search Behavior
Government Surveillance and Internet Search Behavior
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政府监控和互联网搜索行为
DOI：
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发表时间：
2017
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Catherine Tucker
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Alex Marthews;Catherine Tucker
本文使用2013年6月监控事件曝光前后11个国家的关键词搜索量数据，分析谷歌用户的搜索行为是否因此发生变化。美国政府对用户的互联网搜索进行了多么密切的监控，这一监控事件被视为一种外生冲击。每个搜索词都根据其隐私敏感度沿着多个维度进行独立评级。使用面板数据，我们的结果表明，在跨国范围内，用户不太可能使用他们认为可能会给他们带来美国政府麻烦的搜索词进行搜索。在美国，这是受影响的搜索词的主要子集。然而，在国际上，被评为个人敏感的搜索词的流量也有所下降。我们的研究结果表明，政府对互联网的监控对搜索行为有寒蝉效应，政府监控计划可能会损害美国互联网公司的国际竞争力。
This paper uses data from eleven countries on the search volume of select keywords from before and after the surveillance revelations of June 2013, to analyze whether Google users' search behavior changed as a result. The surveillance revelations are treated as an exogenous shock in information about how closely users' internet searches were being monitored by the US government. Each search term was independently rated for its degree of privacy sensitivity along multiple dimensions. Using panel data, our results suggest that cross-nationally, users were less likely to search using search terms that they believed might get them in trouble with the US government. In the US, this was the main subset of search terms that were affected. However, internationally there was also a drop in traffic for search terms that were rated as personally sensitive. Our results suggest that there is a chilling effect on search behavior from government surveillance on the Internet, and that government surveillance programs may damage the international competitiveness of US-based internet firms.