  We studied variability in General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) awareness
in relation to digital experience in the 28 European countries of EU27-UK,
through secondary analysis of the Eurobarometer 91.2 survey conducted in March
2019 (N = 27,524). Education, occupation, and age were the strongest
sociodemographic predictors of GDPR awareness, with little influence of gender,
subjective economic well-being, or locality size. Digital experience was
significantly and positively correlated with GDPR awareness in a linear model,
but this relationship proved to be more complex when we examined it through a
typological analysis. Using an exploratory k-means cluster analysis we
identified four clusters of digital citizenship, across both dimensions of
digital experience and GDPR awareness: the off-line citizens (22%), the social
netizens (32%), the web citizens (17%), and the data citizens (29%). The
off-line citizens ranked lowest in internet use and GDPR awareness; the web
citizens ranked at about average values, while the data citizens ranked highest
in both digital experience and GDPR knowledge and use. The fourth identified
cluster, the social netizens, had a discordant profile, with remarkably high
social network use, below average online shopping experiences, and low GDPR
awareness. Digitalization in human capital and general internet use is a strong
country-level correlate of the national frequency of the data citizen type. Our
results confirm previous studies of the low privacy awareness and skills
associated with intense social media consumption, but we found that young
generations are evenly divided between the rather carefree social netizens and
the strongly invested data citizens.
