Odhiambo Fredrick Opiyo, Dr. Sylvia Ndanu Mutua

Abstract

One almost inescapable reality in this age and predominantly among the youth is to lead a normal life outside the social media. It can be confidently argued that a huge percentage of these digital netizens’ idle life and now to a disturbing extent transcending even to their productive life is spent in the virtual world. Indeed, with smartphones and internet connectivity becoming increasingly cheaper, more and more people are getting connected. In this mix is over fifty social media sites that keep on alluring this gullible and inquisitive age-set. In their quest for relevance and social belonging, a series of online applications must be installed that facilitate ease of online navigation. More often than not, these applications by default lend themselves as tools for personal data collection. Fail to submit the prerequisite data and you have no freedom to enjoy the services of the online application in question. In the recent past, however, there have been numerous reports of breaches of the collected data; breaches that compromise at times vital information. This study is therefore geared towards assessing the implications of these data breaches on online interaction and how the affected consumer is adjusting to the said threats.

Keywords: online communities, metadata, privacy perceptions, informational privacy, psychological privacy, interactional privacy.