“What Can I Really Do?” Explaining the Privacy Paradox with Online Apathy

Authors

  • Eszter Hargittai Delaney Family Professor Department of Communication Studies Northwestern University
  • Alice Marwick Assistant Professor Department of Communication and Media Studies Fordham University

Keywords:

focus groups, Internet skills, networked privacy, online apathy, privacy, privacy paradox, young adults

Abstract

Based on focus group interviews, we considered how young adults’ attitudes about privacy can be reconciled with their online behavior. The “privacy paradox” suggests that young people claim to care about privacy while simultaneously providing a great deal of personal information through social media. Our interviews revealed that young adults do understand and care about the potential risks associated with disclosing information online and engage in at least some privacy-protective behaviors on social media. However, they feel that once information is shared, it is ultimately out of their control. They attribute this to the opaque practices of institutions, the technological affordances of social media, and the concept of networked privacy, which acknowledges that individuals exist in social contexts where others can and do violate their privacy.

Author Biographies

Eszter Hargittai, Delaney Family Professor Department of Communication Studies Northwestern University

Eszter Hargittai is Delaney Family Professor in the Communication Studies Department and Faculty Associate of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University where she heads the Web Use Project.

Alice Marwick, Assistant Professor Department of Communication and Media Studies Fordham University

Alice Marwick is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies and Director of the McGannon Center for Communication Research at Fordham University.

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Published

2016-07-27

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Articles

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