Generation Z and digital privacy: are young people increasingly aware?

Generation Z is considered the most digital of all time, but are its members aware of how the Internet affects their priorities and the risks they may run on social networks?

Suppose you are at home after a day at the University, watching your favorite series, and when you least expect it, your television mysteriously changes, and the program that is having the most success on social networks at that time plugs you in, you would probably think that it was due to some paranormal phenomenon, just as it happens in the movies. But the explanation is much simpler: all these situations, and many more similar, have their origin in Internet and its ability to intervene and change the priorities of young people. That is why it is so important to talk about digital privacy and security of personal data.

How are the young people of generation Z?

But first, let’s see what these young people are like and how they relate. Generation Z is made up of those born between 1995 and 2010; unlike millennials, who were born between 1981 and 1995. Well, we can say that young Z are “the kings of the multiscreen”the true digital natives.

They are good communicators through images and very skilled at creating content, unlike millennials, who are more interested in sharing content than creating it.

In addition, young Z are self taught. 33% learn through internet tutorials and do all their work online. His ambition and desire for his work to impact the world make him the generation that cares most about achieving a perfect world for themselves and for those to come.

Access to the cloud has given these young people the necessary tools to create their own world, and therefore makes them adapt to any situation.

But one thing that makes them stand out from other generations is that prefer digital privacy and be more incognito. An example is the use of applications such as Snapchat, Secret and Whisper.

Are they aware of digital privacy and its risks?

Or put another way, are these young people really aware of the risks and inconveniences involved in sharing all their information on the Internet? let’s start with the cookies:

A cookie is a file created by a website that contains data and is sent between a sender and a receiver.

On the Internet, the issuer would be the server that has any web page; and the receiver, the browser you are using to visit that web page.

A cookie wants to identify you and store your information and activity history on a specific website.

What purpose do these tools serve? Cookies can know when was the last time you entered a web page or save the items you left in the cart of an online store. Hence, we can receive personalized advertising wherever we are, whether it is another web page or a social network.

So are they good or bad? It depends. There are web specific cookies that are necessary for the web pages to load correctly in our browser and thus be able to perfectly display the web content. But, like in the movies, cookies have a dark side. We refer to third party cookies, which collect our personal information and use it for, for example, advertising purposes…

How is generation Z protected?

As these young people are very concerned about safeguarding their data, they use fictitious aliases to avoid being located in Internet searches, or even create two types of accounts: rinsta (real and serious account) and finsta (fake account and for close friends).

Among his priorities is the use of incognito social networks to be able to comment anonymously. Something that may be due to the phenomenon called social coolinga situation that is characterized by a great concern for everything that is published and for the likes received on social networks.

In the end, all this denotes a greater awareness of the new generations, who are much more aware of the price we must pay for our personal data to enjoy a stable online social life.

Privacy in Spain

The 53% of Spanish Internet users do not agree with connecting to devices that monitor their activitieseven though this implies day to day facilities, according to the results of a study carried out by Kantar TNS in 2018 where more than 70,000 users were asked about data, technology and e commerce.

In addition, 6 out of 10 Spaniards have at some time changed their privacy preferences on social networks such as Twitter or LinkedIn, among others.

Does all this mean that we are already in a new stage of awareness regarding the importance of digital privacy? What do you think?