[论文解读] Sex differences in attitudes towards online privacy and anonymity among Israeli students with different technical backgrounds

Maor Weinberger, Maayan Zhitomirsky‐Geffet+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Aug 7, 2023

Privacy, Security, and Data Protection被引用 14

一句话总结

这项探索性研究模型化了在具有不同技术背景的 169 名 Israeli 学生中男女在在线隐私态度上的差异，并考察隐私素养、自我效能和行为方面的性别差距。

ABSTRACT

Introduction. In this exploratory study, we proposed an experimental framework to investigate and model male/female differences in attitudes towards online privacy and anonymity among Israeli students. Our aim was to comparatively model men and women's online privacy attitudes, and to assess the online privacy gender gap. Method. Various factors related to the user's online privacy and anonymity were considered, such as awareness of anonymous threats made online, concern for protecting personal information on the Internet, online privacy self-efficacy, online privacy literacy and users' tendency to engage in privacy paradox behaviour, i.e., personal data disclosure despite the awareness of anonymity and privacy threats. Analysis. A user study was carried out among 169 Israeli academic students through a quantitative method using closed-ended questionnaires. The subjects' responses were analysed using standard statistical measures. We then proposed a summarized comparative model for the two sexes' online privacy behaviour. Results. We found that a digital gap still exists between men and women regarding technological knowledge and skills used to protect their identity and personal information on the Web. Interestingly, users' tendency to engage in privacy paradox behaviour was not higher among men despite their higher level of technological online privacy literacy compared to women. Conclusions. Women's relatively high online privacy self-efficacy level and their low awareness of technological threat do not match their relatively low technological online privacy literacy level. This leads to a lower ability to protect their identity and personal information as compared to men. We conclude that further steps should be taken to eliminate the inter-gender technological gap in online privacy and anonymity awareness and literacy.

研究动机与目标

• 在 Israeli 学生中建模男性与女性在对在线隐私与匿名性的态度差异。
• 评估与在线隐私相关的因素，如威胁意识、信息保护关注、隐私自我效能和隐私素养。
• 调查隐私悖论（在威胁意识存在的情况下披露数据）是否因性别而异。
• 识别在线隐私意识与素养方面的跨性别技术差距的存在及性质。

提出的方法

• 使用封闭式问卷的定量研究。
• 样本为 169 名 Israeli 学术学生。
• 使用标准量表对隐私相关变量进行性别比较的统计分析。
• 提出男性与女性在线隐私行为的概括比较模型。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 男性和女性在对在线威胁的认识以及保护个人信息的关注度上是否存在差异？
• RQ2 在线隐私自我效能感和隐私素养是否存在性别差异？
• RQ3 隐私悖论倾向在男性和女性之间是否存在差异？
• RQ4 与在线身份保护相关的技术知识与技能的性别差距性质是什么？

主要发现

• 在用于在线保护身份和个人信息的技术知识与技能方面，男性与女性之间存在数字差距。
• 女性在线隐私自我效能感相对较高，但对技术威胁的认识较低，隐私素养也低于男性。
• 尽管男性的隐私素养更高，但隐私悖论倾向并非男性更高。
• 总体而言，女性在高自我效能与较低素养的组合下，在保护身份方面的能力低于男性。