Millennials and Privacy

It seems that undergraduate millennial students who use facebook and myspace tend to have a false expectation of privacy on facebook and myspace. For the last few weeks, I have conducted experimental research on millennial undergraduate students and their perceptions of privacy on websites like facebook and myspace. All of the students took a pretest and post test, both of which measured the students' perceptions of privacy regarding social networking websites.

I invited a guest speaker to deliver a presentation to half of my classes. This speaker's presentation was focused social networking websites and their potential impact on the job search. During the presentations, students posed questions and offered comments regarding companies who check the facebook and myspace profiles of their job candidates. Many students did not agree with the "virtual background checks" that companies are conducting and they thought that these companies were invading their privacy. I collected qualitative and quantitative data from the groups who heard the guest speaker and the group who did not experience the presentation. I plan to use this information in a future research article.

This week I pose this question to all of you - Do millennials have a false sense of privacy on the web? Do they care? Do these students think about the impact of their virtual disclosures (pictures, comments, etc.)?