Harris did a poll recently at the behest of a German company called TeamViewer that provides access to computer data from anywhere. The study asks questions about where people want to be able to access data they don’t have with them. I’m assuming they also did the study before developing the product, but this data is recent.

While TeamViewer provided some distilled statistics in their press release, they also put some raw data tables in there, which provide a couple other humorous insights.

The real take-away from this whole thing is that people are addicted to their data. They want access from places that you would think are wholly inappropriate. Well, largely inappropriate. I should caution… the easy reading of this is that this data reflects what people said they wanted. That’s not strictly true. Here’s the wording on the question:

“During which of the following scenarios, if any, do you think someone might want the freedom to access their work or home computer? Please select all that apply.”

So… this isn’t “where would you want the freedom…”; it’s “where would someone…” In other words, “I would never do that, but I’m sure someone would.” The responses are, nonetheless, interesting.

8 scenarios were posed (plus an obligatory “other”; we’ll ignore that). And people responded as to those in which they envisioned people wanting their data. To wit:

• While on vacation: 74%.
• While in bed: 48%.
• While shopping with a spouse: 36%. (What, you never wanted to sneak off to your porn while she was shopping?)
• While at a sporting event: 29%.
• While driving/on the road: 28%. (This is the Darwin pool. Soon to be out of the gene pool.)
• During a honeymoon or romantic getaway: 17%. (Can you say buzzkill?)
• During a date: 11%. ON A DATE, PEOPLE!! Tell me you’re calling up your baby pictures…
• While at a church/house of worship: 8% (Finally, a modicum of decorum… Those 8% are probably apostate anyway…)

They also split out the demographics by marriage status. And here’s what you gotta love:

In EVERY category, the never-been-married people are most likely and the no-longer-married people are least likely to want to check their data in any scenario. Married folks are in the middle.

My interpretation:

• Single dude: “Yeah, so, what’s wrong with that?”
• Married dude: “Seems to be working…”
• Ex-married dude: “OK, that didn’t work…”

You can check out their release here…