Privacy perception and information technology utilization of high school students

Abstract

Mobile technologies are commonly used and are important by high school students, since teens ages 14 to 17 use these open platforms to share information, communication and construction of their desired cyber identity. Accompanying technology for related data privacy within implementing educational applications is yet to be developed. This research was designed to investigate the perceptions of data privacy and the protection of personal data of high school students who are surrounded by the Internet, social media and technology. The perception of high school students' personal data privacy survey was developed and conducted with 1065 high school students (9th grades). The study presents five main themes: (1) ownership and utilization of different technologies and password sharing, (2) Internet utilization and perception of privacy, (3) social media utilization and perception of personal privacy on social media, (4) knowledge level and perception of personal data conservation, (5) Information technology utilization. High school students have a personal data privacy algorithm but persons or institutions outside this algorithm are perceived as a threat to their personal data and are rejected. This research suggests developing practices and techniques to overcome students' concerns about privacy risks that result from the collection and sharing personal data.