How Concerned Are You About Online Privacy?
What you worry about is not always what you act on
Almost everyone says they care about online privacy, and almost everyone keeps handing over data anyway - a gap researchers call the privacy paradox. This test measures the caring part: three separate concerns about how your data is collected, whether you can control it, and whether you are told what happens to it, based on one of the most used scales in privacy research.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Answer about your general attitude toward companies and apps handling your data, not about any single app or website.
What it measures
Three concerns from the Internet Users' Information Privacy Concerns scale (IUIPC): unease about data collection, wanting control over your own data, and wanting to be aware of what happens to it. This measures attitudes, not behaviour - how much online privacy concerns you, not whether you act on it, two things research on the privacy paradox finds are often separate.
Based on: Internet Users' Information Privacy Concerns scale, IUIPC (Malhotra, Kim & Agarwal)
Possible results
Concern about collection
How uneasy you feel about companies gathering your personal data.
Concern about control
How much you want the ability to see, correct or remove your own data.
Concern about awareness
How much you want to know what happens to your data after you hand it over.
Common questions
Why do I worry about privacy but still overshare online?
This is the privacy paradox, and it is extremely common, not a personal failing. Researchers point to several reasons: privacy policies are long and rarely read, the benefit of sharing is immediate while the cost is abstract and delayed, and by the time data is requested it is often too late to negotiate.
Is high privacy concern the same as being paranoid?
No. This measures a specific, well-studied attitude toward how organisations handle personal data, not a general suspicion of other people or a belief in conspiracies - the scale this test is based on was developed and validated for consumer and workplace research, not clinical use.
Which of the three concerns matters most?
The research behind this scale does not single one out - collection, control and awareness were validated together as parts of one overall concern in a survey of hundreds of internet users, and in most people the three tend to rise and fall together rather than one driving the others.
Sources
- Malhotra, N. K., Kim, S. S., & Agarwal, J. (2004). Internet Users' Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC): The Construct, the Scale, and a Causal Model. Information Systems Research. doi:10.1287/isre.1040.0032
- Kokolakis, S. (2017). Privacy attitudes and privacy behaviour: A review of current research on the privacy paradox phenomenon. Computers & Security. doi:10.1016/j.cose.2015.07.002
An honest note This is Quinthea's own wording, adapted from the Internet Users' Information Privacy Concerns scale, so scores are not comparable to the published questionnaire's norms. This measures attitudes about privacy, not actual online behaviour, and the well-documented gap between the two - the privacy paradox - means a high score here does not guarantee cautious habits, nor does a low score mean carelessness. This is about everyday data practices, not a political position, and it takes no view on any specific company or law.