Report from Berkeley School of Law comparing Information Privacy Attitudes amongst Young Adults and Older Adults

Information Privacy Attitudes and Policies, How Different are Young Adults from Older Adults

Many commentators 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.

A gap in privacy knowledge provides one explanation for the apparent license with which the young behave online.