Sensitivity to online privacy in social networking sites

Abstract

Privacy has been a subject of discussion long before the advent of computer networks, however, the notion of privacy has taken a dramatic turn due to the proliferation of information technology tools and applications, which is further aggravated by the social networking sites which allow users to display their profile information to be viewed and shared by millions of online visitors. This gives the potential of negative use of their information. Previous works have concentrated largely on privacy in online transaction with just a few on the higher institution of learning, which is regarded as one of the earliest adopters of information technology and the most unsecured environments. This work examines the perception of online privacy among university students with the intention of examining the relationship between the demography, level of awareness and online privacy. The results show that despite there is no significant difference based on gender as well as whether the respondent is in IT related field or not, there is a contradiction between the level of awareness and expected attitude to online privacy.