Citizens and Technical Progress

The survey contains three topic complexes:

1. Political attitudes and questions on the European Election.

2. Attitudes to data protection.

3. Attitudes to technical progress.

Topics: 1. Political attitudes and questions on the European Election:
behavior at the polls in the last Federal Parliament election; party
preference (Sunday question); satisfaction with the policies of party
voted for; perception of the election campaign for the European
Election; judgement on the party election campaign; points of criticism
of the party last elected in selected political areas; effects of
developments in SPD-policies on one´s own attitude to the SPD.

2. Attitudes to data protection: general attitude to data protection;
knowledge of data deserving protection; importance of a data protection
law; assumed motives for the federal data protection law of 1977;
personal knowledge of data misuse; adequate data protection
regulations; recommendations for an improvement of the law; perceived
disturbance from storage of personal data by authorities and companies;
situations in which the statement of personal conditions was
particularly unpleasant; extent of need for information on citizens by
the government as well as private enterprise; knowledge about areas in
which the data protection law applies; statement of areas in which
registration of personal information is considered harmless.

3. Attitudes to technical progress: interest in questions of technical
change; expected advantages or disadvantages from technical changes in
personal life; manner of expected changes of life from technology;
particularly interesting technology areas; attitudes to technology,
progress, computers, automation, government surveillance (scale);
assessment of the advantageousness of modern technology in selected
areas; attitude to various technical projects and plans, such as e.g.
minitel, gene technology, automation, computerization in the office and
at home.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; number of children; ages of
children (classified); school education; occupation; occupational
position; employment; household income; size of household; respondent
is head of household; characteristics of head of household; housing
situation.