Perceptions of Digital Footprints and the Value of Privacy

Nowadays, life takes place in the digital world more than ever. Especially in this age of digitalization and Big Data, more and more actions of daily life are performed online. People use diverse online applications for shopping, bank transactions, social networks, sports, etc. Common to all, regardless of purpose, is the fact that personal information is disclosed and creates so-called digital footprints of users. In this paper, the questions are considered in how far people are aware of their personal information they leave behind and to what extent they have a concept of the attributed importance of particularly sensitive data. Moreover, it is investigated in how far people are concerned about their information privacy and for what kind of benefit people decide to disclose information. Aspects were collected in a two-step empirical approach with two focus groups and an online survey. The results of the qualitative part reveal that young people are not consciously aware of their digital footprints. Regarding a classification of data based on its sensitivity, diverse concepts exist and emphasize the context-specific and individual consideration of the topic. Results of the quantitative part reveal that people are concerned about their online privacy and that the benefit of belonging to a group outweighs the risk of disclosing sensitive data.