Methods
Twenty (20) La Trobe Melbourne students and La Trobe students in both local and international were interviewed about how secure they think their private information is on the Internet. These students were selected because they are youth generation who most of them use social networking sites every day. They were asked some question the safety of online privacy, their password and personal information to help the researchers know about the importance of online privacy with reflect to young people, especially students.
Results
The survey results show that participants have different options about their password security, especially comparison between ten (10) males and ten (10) females. According to the survey, the male students thought that their passwords were safer than woman’s passwords. Namely, 20% boy students felt their password is somewhat secure while that percentage of girl students was 40%. On the other hand, secure was agreed by 30% boy and 50% girl and very secure was answered by 50% boy and just only 10% girl.
Figure 1: Student thinks about their password security (%)
In addition, the two student groups also answered about their personal information that they posted in the Internet. As a result, 80% female participants said that their information were posted in social media such as Facebook, Instagram… were in public while that proportion of male participants was 40%. As far as personal information was considered that was posted in private, 60% male students and mere 20% female students chose this answer. Unsurprisingly, male students pay more attention to safety of online privacy than female students.
Figure 2: How did you post your information on social media? (%)