A new study has found that younger online users are more likely to take care of their personal data online.
The study by the Internet & American Life Project from the Pew Research Center in the USA, revealed that people between the ages of 18 and 29 are more likely than older people to take steps to limit others from accessing their personal information.
This result might be a surprise to many who may expect younger people to be more cavalier about sharing personal information.
Some 2,253 people were surveyed in the study. Of those asked, 44 per cent under the age of 30 said that they try to protect their privacy online, as compared with 33 per cent of users between the ages of 30 and 49, and 25 per cent of users between the ages of 50 and 64.
Mary Madden is a senior research specialist at Pew. She explained that search engines and social media websites have a central role nowadays in building our online identity. She said: “Many users are learning and refining their approach as they go, changing privacy settings on profiles, customizing who can see certain updates and deleting unwanted information about them that appears online."
Online privacy has become a hot topic recently, especially with social media site, Facebook, coming up against criticism regarding the privacy of its users.
