Trends and Friends: Access, use and benefits of digital technology for homeless and ex-homeless people

7. Concerns
concerns from a list). More common worries were losing face-to-face contact with people,
services putting personal information online, spending too much time on the internet,
developing physical problems (such as poor eyesight or a bad back), being found by
somebody they didn’t want to see or accidentally downloading a virus.
• ‘I am very worried about giving over… my details…. even my name, my age, my date of birth.
Because… where I live…people can steal your identity… they can access your bank account.’ 84
The impact of recent highly publicised privacy scandals and instances of hacking were evident
in the concerns and worries that some respondents shared. References to NSA, eBay being
hacked and other privacy scandals reported in the media were recounted.
• ‘The British government they spy on Google, Facebook … for example. Yes I am simple
person, they don’t care about me. But if I was somebody who they are interested in they
can read all my emails and check my Facebook. There is no private. I believe this because of
people like Edward Snowden and Wikileaks. What can I do? I can do nothing.’ 85
• ‘I hear Sky news said that a hacker took 600,000 passwords’ 86
• ‘I would not want to do online banking. There was a recent problem with eBay. Nothing is
secure on the internet.’ 87
The second common concern, which came up primarily in the Groundswell open question, was
losing face-to-face contact as a result of increased use of technology and of services going
online in particular. There were two aspects of this concern: that loss of face-to-face contact
would reduce levels of trust and connection between people, increasing isolation (67% of
Groundswell respondents agreed that phones or computers stop people communicating
properly) and that complex online systems would make accessing services more difficult.
• ‘ I just find that people avoid … they use their tablet, phone or internet as a way of avoiding
what is around them. And I think lot of us would converse and talk a lot more and be a lot
more … aware of our surroundings if we just put down the mobile or put down the phone
and didn’t use the internet.’ 88
• ‘I’ve never had to [access services] online – please God I don’t. Because I just wouldn’t like
to do it online. I would rather just phone up and make an appointment … it is a trust thing.
And it’s face-to-face contact.’ 89
• ‘That’s when things get sorted out, when you speak to people. You can negotiate, you
can express, you build trust … Like myself, I build relationships. Offices or people that are
working with me start to trust me and they will work hard ...they will help me. Most of the
breakthroughs for homeless people are done... in person, not online.’ 90
84
Male, 55 (speaking to a Groundswell peer researcher)
85
Male, 40 (speaking to a Groundswell peer researcher)
86
Male, 52 (Lemos&Crane questionnaire respondent)
87
Male, 48 (Lemos&Crane questionnaire respondent)
88
Male, 32 (speaking to a Groundswell peer researcher)
89
Female, 50 (speaking to a Groundswell peer researcher)
90
Male, 27 (speaking to a Groundswell peer researcher)
43