Who knows about me? An analysis of age-related disclosure preferences

Users are increasingly willing to disclose sensitive personal information online, seemingly without great regard for privacy protection. We surveyed over 1200 people to measure user attitudes and behaviours in terms of: (i) the type and perceived sensitivity of information they regularly disclosed, and (ii) who the recipients of different types of information were. In our initial analysis of the data we have observed an interesting age-related trend: a U shaped curve whereby the youngest and oldest members of society are less protective of their privacy than the middle-aged cohort.