| This quantitative study examined the attitudes of Generation Y adults towards Internet privacy and whether or not these attitudes differ within the cohort based on demographics or level of Internet use. The study used an instrument first developed by J. B. Earp, A. I. Anton, L. Aiman-Smith, and W. H. Stufflebeam in 2005 and published in "Examining Internet Privacy Values Within the Context of User Privacy Values." The sample set included 426 qualified, completed, and usable survey responses. ANOVA and Tukey HSD comparison analyses were used to show that differences exist within Generation Y based on demographics as well as level of Internet use. The factors of personalization, notice/awareness, collection, and information storage all had significant differences in means based on at least one demographic factor. The factors of transfer and access/participation did not have any significant differences in means across demographic factors. The demographics of ethnicity, region, and/or gender showed significant differences in means for 12 of the 14 questions where significant differences in means exist. Gender, occupation and age also show significant differences in means regarding level of Internet use and users with higher levels of usage have significant higher mean scores and feel more strongly about their purchase history being used to customize their browser experience. These users also have significantly higher mean scores regarding websites disclosing security safeguards used to protect personally identifiable information. This information can be used in tandem with the results of this study to provide users with different options concerning how different factors of Internet privacy are handled. |
