Analysis of Internet Users’ Level of Online Privacy Concerns

As the Internet permeates almost every aspect of our daily lives, some argue that the benefits of its use are diminished by threats to personal privacy. Privacy concern is a desire to keep personal information out of the hands of others. Online privacy is becoming an increasingly important policy issue as consumer groups rally to protect what they perceive to be basic privacy rights whereas others argue for freedom of information. This article presents an overview of the literature on privacy studies and examines survey results relating to Internet users’ demographic characteristics using data from 1998 online Internet surveys conducted at the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Results indicate that there are small differences among degrees of Internet privacy concerns across groups divided by sex, education level, income level, and race, with all groups preferring privacy to convenience.