Tech & Biz

Digital divide between young and old on online privacy

by Terri Potratz | September 5, 2008 at 01:59 pm

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A new study out of Canada's Ryerson University, The Next Digital Divide: Online Social Network Privacy, has found that young people believe that personal information posted online remains relatively private, while older generations consider all information posted online to be public and available for perusal.

"Young people believe that information shared with their personal social networks is considered private as long as its dissemination is limited to their social network. Organizations, on the other hand, don't recognize this notion of network privacy. They believe that any information posted online is public and deserves no protection."

While some younger groups do recognize the possibility of potential employers to investigate their private information online, few do anything to actually remove any of it. They consider it inappropriate behaviour for current/potential employers to be using social networking tools to research them.

Jennifer Stoddart, the privacy commissioner of Canada, comments:

“This study helps us better understand how today's young people are using this first generation of online social networks, and how they approach the modern challenge of protecting their reputation online,” said Stoddart. “It sheds light on how young Canadians are interpreting the concept of privacy online and how strongly they differ from their parents and their employers.”

Soooo removing those party photos of me from last weekend from my Facebook account, even though they're untagged...

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