September 8th, 2008
The CBC has reported on a new study which highlights differing expectations of online privacy between age groups. Avner Levin, Ryerson Professor and director of the privacy and cyber crime institute, presented the study which showed that young people have a view of online privacy which is not shared by older generations, particularly business executives and managers.
Although most young people consider posts to their Facebook pages to be private, older generations consider posts online to be completely public. Levin pointed out that this disparity can be particularly important when young people seek employment. He went on to say that “young people believe that information shared with their personal social networks is considered private as long as its dissemination is limited to their social network. Organizations, on the other hand, don’t recognize this notion of network privacy. They believe that any information posted online is public and deserves no protection.”
Levin explained that young people typically view friends, family, and career as entirely separate networks. As a result, they may post risque or potentially harmful items online (to their friends) without considering the implications of a manager seeing them.
As the baby-boomer generation filters into retirement age, young people will have increasing professional opportunities. It will be important for the businesspeople of the future to recognize that items posted online, which they considered private, may be considered public by others.
-Kai