Generational Views on Privacy

A guest post on Wired.com by Heather West of the Center for Democracy and Technology tackles whether online privacy is a generational issue. Recent studies, including one on behavioral advertising, show that those in younger age groups care most about how their information is used, and many teens and young adults have now come to expect a high level of control over their personal information. Those expectations of control over information, West writes, seem to reflect the expectations of the Fair Information Practices that form the basis of most privacy law. Because social media users value privacy so heavily, she adds, government agencies should strive to protect user privacy in these mediums.

"Younger users may not be able to cite specific privacy laws and standards off the top of their heads," West writes, "but they have a firm grasp of what they do want control over when it comes to their Internet usage and an expectation that these controls are not a privilege, but a right as digital natives."

It's interesting to see how the conversation about how young people approach information security has changed, particularly over the past year. The surveys cited by West point to an increased understanding of the importance of information security among all age groups, and show that online privacy has little to do with generational differences. The key is to educate and train workers of all age groups to make thoughtful decisions about what information to share, and in what context.