Trust, Awareness, and Risk Perception in the Online Environment

The Institute for Information Society Research (ITKI) was established in February 2019 at the University of Public Service in Hungary. Representatives of several academic disciplines jointly examine the complex effects of infocommunication services and new technologies on individuals, society, the state, the enforcement of fundamental rights, and democratic public discourse, along with related regulatory issues. In order to monitor the reality of digital culture and to accurately identify processes that require regulation, ITKI also aims to promote domestic scientific and social discourse on the topic through essential empirical research. In this empirical study, we aimed to explore the characteristics of how Hungarian adults use information technologies—primarily for communication purposes. Beyond mapping certain usage habits, the research primarily sought to determine how much Hungarian people trust the actors and services of the information society, how consciously they participate in the online world, and what risks they perceive in the spread of new technologies. On behalf of ITKI, a nationally representative survey was conducted via telephone interviews with 1,003 participants. The data collected are representative of the entire adult population in Hungary in terms of age, gender, education level, settlement type, and region. The telephone survey was carried out by MASMI Hungary, the Hungarian member of the MASMI European market research network. The data collection took place in October 2019.