Poll Finds Young People Care About Online Privacy, After All

So much for the exhibitionist generation

Everywhere I go, I hear some variation of the claim that "young people today just don't care about privacy." This is something that people widely seem to believe is "just true." The latest claim to this effect comes in the form of a new poll, the release of which was trumpeted with unfortunate headlines like "Millennials don't worry about online privacy."

In fact, the poll, which was conducted by the University of Southern California's corporate-partnered Center for the Digital Future, showed no such thing. Although there were some differences between younger and older respondents, they were not nearly dramatic enough to warrant such headlines. I've been unable to find the poll itself and its methodology online, but the Annenberg Center press release summarizing those findings reports that: "Both Millennials (ages 18-34) and over-35 people believe in large numbers (70% and 77%, respectively, with a 3.1% margin of error) that 'no one should ever be allowed to have access to my personal data or web behavior.'"