Privacy: an outdated concept in a digital era? (Part 3 of 3)

Do consumers even care?
The question whether privacy is outdated, cannot be answered without focussing on whether people are even aware that all these new applications and technologies can result in a situation that they are disclosing more personal information than intended. The last decade people are more and more confronted with the (negative) effect that our online presence is increasingly affecting our real (offline) life. An international survey of 123People (2011) shows that 66% of the respondents (n=5761), had at least  sometimes regrets of posting personal information online, and 11% (n=5742) of the respondents have ever been denied a job because of content and/or images they posted on a social networking site (16). Research of Hoofnagle et al. (17) support this concern as results show that a majority of the respondents were more concerned about privacy issues on the internet compared to 5 years ago. Overall, 48% of the respondents mentioned that this is the result of the increase of knowledge about privacy risks online. Although people think they are knowledgeable about online privacy, several scientific research states otherwise. A survey of the Consumer Awareness Project showed that 42% of the respondents were unaware of how their activities and behaviours can be followed and collected online. 12% of the respondents even think that tracking by organizations for commercial purposes is not performed at all (18).

Interesting aspect in several research papers, is that the 18-24 year old groups show lowest results in comparison with older generations (19)(17). In the research of Hoofnagle et al., of 1000 respondent, the 18-24 year old group had the lowest results in online and offline privacy knowledge;
“We found that while young adults tend to be similar to older adults in attitudes, practices, and policy preferences regarding information privacy, they are quite more likely than older adults to be wrong in judging whether the legal environment protects them.” (17).
In a study of Forester, this group of young adults (18-28) also score the lowest in the level of how concerned they are in sharing personal information (35%) compared to older generations (19). The conclusion of Hoofnagle et al. is that young adults are not explicitly educated in online privacy, but more on cyber bullying and cyber predators. As described in their citation above, the knowledge of this generation about law and regulations is much poorer than older people. They even assume that the government protects their privacy in this (tempting) online environment (6)(17). Assuming that people, and mainly young adults, do not care about their privacy however,  is unjustified (17).

Conclusion
Privacy is not an outdated concept in an age of Information Technology that is rapidly changing our lives on a global scale. It is in our nature to protect personal parts of ourselves, in order to guard us against the disclosure of something personal that can result in situations where people will treat us differently. On the other side, another fundamental aspect that makes us human, is the ability to express ourselves. As technology amplifies our ability to share our comments, social activities, photo’s etc., the line between expression and protection of personal information is getting thinner and more and more difficult to preserve. While consumers are exploring social media and all sorts of functionality, governments and (commercial) organizations are increasingly processing this information. This is not a new phenomenon; throughout our history, governments and commercial organizations have always been active in collecting personal information of consumers; i.e. for public safety or to sell more products. The fundamental difference between today and a decade ago, is that the evolution between society and technology is at such a high pace. As a result there is a continuous balance between society, government and organizations in defining and governing what is right and wrong in the utilization of digital information. Education about online privacy will always be important to inform and increase the knowledge of consumers as the advent of new technologies and functionalities will never come to an end. Grass root movements play an important role in protecting the digital rights of individuals and informing them when organizations or even government actions invades their right of online. Consumers should be aware of the functionality, purpose and goal of the various social media channels that they utilize and use them accountably; “If you think a post can have a negative impact (in any way) on yourself or someone else, do not post it”.

Sources
6. Solove, Daniel J. A Taxonomy of privacy. University of Pennsylvania Law Review Vol.154. January 2006, pp. 477-560.
16. 123People. 123people online privacy survey results. [Online] January 2011. http://www.slideshare.net/123people/123people-privacy-survey-final.
17. Hoofnagle, Chris, et al. How different are young adults from older adults when it comes to information privacy attitudes & policies? 14 April 2011, p. 20.
18. Hart, Peter D. Online Privacy Survey. Consumer Awareness Project. [Online] 14 November 2008. [Cited: 5 December 2011.] http://www.consumerawarenessproject.org/online-privacy-survey/.
19. Consumer Privacy Is A Ticking Time Bomb For Customer Intelligence Executives – Consumers Are No Longer Passive About Their Privacy. Frankland, Dave. Privacy And Customer Intelligence, Cambridge : Forester, 2009, Vol. 1.
20. Foursquare. How many people are on foursquare? Foursquare.com. [Online] 2011. [Cited: 5 December 2011.] http://support.foursquare.com/entries/196591-how-many-people-are-on-foursquare.
21. Michelle, Singletary. Identity-theft statistics look better, but you still don’t want to be one. Washington Post. [Online] 9 Februari 2011. [Cited: 5 December 2011.] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/09/AR2011020906064.html.
22. Javelin Strategy & Research. Identity Fraud Survey Report: Consumer Version, 2010.
23. Richard, Power. CHILD IDENTITY THEFT – New Evidence Indicates Identity Thieves are Targeting Children for Unused Social Security Numbers. s.l. : Carnegie Mellon Cylab, 2011.
24. Being Human: Human-Computer Interaction in the year 2020. Harper, Richard, et al. Cambridge : Microsoft Research Ltd, 2008.

Laaste 5 artikelen van Anne Hiemstra

• Privacy: an outdated concept in a digital era? (part 2 of 3)
• Privacy: an outdated concept in a digital era? (part 1 of 3)