Online Privacy Awareness of Information and Record Management Department Students

Abstract

While digital technologies and the internet continue to facilitate our daily lives, they also negatively affect the privacy of users. The online privacy of individuals who do not have sufficient awareness about the safe use of the online environment is under threat. Individuals who do not have online privacy awareness may face different negativities such as fraud or abuse in the online environment. This study aims to determine the online privacy awareness levels of undergraduate students studying in Information and Record Management Departments and to reveal whether online privacy awareness differs according to various variables. The participants of the quantitative research consisted of 335 university students studying in the Information and Records Management Departments in Turkey in 2024. The research data were collected with a personal information form and an “online privacy awareness scale” (Korkmaz, Vergili ve Karadaş, 2021). Independent groups t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. According to the results of the study, students’ online privacy awareness is at a medium level. Students’ online privacy knowledge positively affects their online privacy awareness. The online privacy awareness of students who know online privacy is higher than the others. Students’ online privacy awareness shows a statistically significant difference only in the communication sub-dimension according to their gender and the time they spend on the Internet. There is no statistically significant difference between students’ online privacy awareness and whether they have personal computers or not, whether they have online privacy concerns or not, their grade levels, and their purposes of using online environments. The study results provide a general assessment of the online privacy awareness of Information and Record Management Departments students and shed light on the current situation. It also contributes to the online privacy literature.