Preliminary insights into the concerns of online privacy and security among millennials in a developing economy

Abstract

Millennials, described as tech-savvies are knowledgeable and using the internet for a couple of things ranging from social media, education, e-commerce, entertainment and so on. However, there are growing concerns lately about online privacy and security with the emergence of the Web 2.0 technologies that allow a lot of multimedia online which is attractive to the millennials. Although there is a threat to what the millennials are agreeing to and the information they provide online, yet there are limited studies that have explored the online privacy issues concerning millennials. Thus, in this study, we investigated millennials and their awareness concerning online privacy threats and security, whether they are bothered about what they put online, as well as measures they have put in place to mitigate this menace from a developing economy perspective. The study employed a quantitative approach where survey data was gathered through self-administration questionnaires with a random sample of 700 undergraduate students in a public university in Ghana. The findings revealed that most of the millennials are aware and concerned about online privacy threats. They are also bothered about privacy effects concerning the information they put online. Therefore, they wish there are laws and regulations protecting consumers about their online privacy in Ghana. The originality of the paper stems from the fact that there is paucity of research about online privacy especially among the millennials in sub-Saharan African countries and our paper is the first to be done in the Ghanaian context.