Washington, D.C. residents and students offered this week mixed reactions about their internet privacy concerns in the wake of a high-profile data breach involving Facebook.
Ashley Kratz, 21, and Erika Heddesheimer, 20, walked through the American University campus on Wednesday, and both noted privacy isn’t on their radar.
“I’d only be concerned if my address got leaked,” Kratz said.
Both women described themselves as active web users who utilize the Internet for internship work and to browse social media.
When it comes to how comfortable they are sharing personal information, both say that they are satisfied sharing personal details like daily “life updates” on sites such as Instagram.
Experts say many people share their attitudes and behavior.
According to the Pew Research Center in its study dealing with online trust, the more people integrate technology into their lives, the more they will trust it with their personal information. The study continued saying people behave differently depending on the context of how they’re using the Internet.
Those interviewed this week mirrored that finding saying they use the Internet differently and that matters for their trust in it depending on whether they’re at work or using it for personal reasons like shopping or social media.
Kratz recounted that she felt most unsafe on the Internet when she was younger, saying that she and her friends used to use the online chatroom Omegle where older men would inappropriately reveal themselves.
That was years ago, but today they feel like issues online are more avoidable.
Their reaction to the recent data breaches of Facebook and internet service providers such as Rogers is nominal. They believed their personal data was not at risk, they have no reason to be afraid.
Experts presenting at a San Diego conference in 2010 wrote that even a long and complicated password can help protect privacy.
In terms of password strength, Heddesheimer and Kratz said that they put minimal effort into the intricacy of their passwords by using the same general string of characters with minor variations on each site.
Mckim Jean-Pierre, 20, responded differently to the subject of internet privacy, because she was impacted by a data breach and as a Canadian resident was aware of the Rogers case in that country.
She states that she uses the internet once every forty-five minutes and social media three hours out of every day, and noted she has a different “very strong” password for her favorite sites.
While she said she feels relatively safe on the internet, she is always cautious with revealing too much information.
Nancy White, 70, who lives in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., uses the internet much less than the American University students down the street. She logs on to sort out her finances and for her work on the school board. She says she is more hesitant to save passwords for commercial use when shopping or for leisure purposes.
White also says that she has not suffered from the recent Facebook data breach due to her lack of usage of the site.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a data breach,” White said. “It’s as secure as it could be.”