How Different are Young Adults from Older Adults When it Comes to Information Privacy Attitudes and Policies?

TLDR

Media portrayals suggest that young adults are less concerned with privacy than older adults, yet empirical evidence is scarce. The study aims to quantitatively assess young adults’ privacy attitudes. Results reveal a more nuanced view of young adults’ privacy attitudes than media portrayals.

Abstract

Media reports teem with stories of young people posting salacious photos online, writing about alcohol-fueled misdeeds on social networking sites, and publicizing other ill-considered escapades that may haunt them in the future. These anecdotes are interpreted as representing a generation-wide shift in attitude toward information privacy. Many commentators therefore claim that young people "are less concerned with maintaining privacy than older people are. Surprisingly, though, few empirical investigations have explored the privacy attitudes of young adults. This report is among the first quantitative studies evaluating young adults' attitudes. It demonstrates that the picture is more nuanced than portrayed in the popular media.