Privacy Attitudes and Concerns in the Digital Lives of Older Adults

Westin's Privacy Attitude Typology Revisited

Bibliographic Data

ID3755851
AuthorsIsioma Elueze (0000-0001-7197-1769, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada), Anabel Quan-Haase (0000-0002-2560-6709, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume62
Issue10
Pages1372-1391
Publication date2018-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764218787026
OpenAlexW2784237954
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited39

There is a growing literature on teenage and young adult users' attitudes toward and concerns about online privacy, yet little is known about older adults and their unique experiences. As older adults join the digital world in growing numbers, we need to gain a better understanding of how they experience and navigate online privacy. This article fills this research gap by examining 40 in-depth interviews with older adults (65+ years) living in East York, Toronto. We found Westin's typology to be a useful starting point for understanding privacy attitudes and concerns in this demographic. We expand Westin's typology and distinguish five categories: fundamentalist, intense pragmatist, relaxed pragmatist, marginally concerned, and cynical expert. We find that older adults are not a homogenous group composed of privacy fundamentalists; rather, there is considerable variability in terms of their privacy attitudes, with only 13% being fundamentalists. We also identify a group of cynical experts who believe that online privacy breaches are inevitable. A large number of older adults are marginally concerned, as they see their online participation as limited and harmless. Older adults were also grouped as either intense or relaxed pragmatists. We find that some privacy concerns are shared by older adults across several categories, the most common being spam, unauthorized access to personal information, and information misuse. We discuss theoretical implications based on the findings for our understanding of privacy in the context of older adults' digital lives and discuss implications for offering training appropriate for enhancing privacy literacy in this age group

Context (archaeology) · Geography · Information privacy · Internet privacy · Personally identifiable information · Political science · Pragmatism · Privacy policy · Sociology · Typology · Computer Science · Law · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access