  There is a growing literature on teenage and young adult users' attitudes
toward and concerns about online privacy, yet little is known about older
adults and their unique experiences. As older adults join the digital world in
growing numbers, we need to gain a better understanding of how they experience
and navigate online privacy. This paper fills this research gap by examining 40
in-depth interviews with older adults (65 and older) living in East York,
Toronto. We found Westin's typology to be a useful starting point for
understanding privacy attitudes and concerns in this demographic. We expand
Westin's typology and distinguish five categories: fundamentalist, intense
pragmatist, relaxed pragmatist, marginally concerned, and cynical expert. We
find that older adults are not a homogenous group composed of privacy
fundamentalists; rather, there is considerable variability in terms of their
privacy attitudes, with only 13 per cent being fundamentalists. We also
identify a group of cynical experts who believe that online privacy breaches
are inevitable. A large majority of older adults are marginally concerned, as
they see their online participation as limited and harmless. Older adults were
also grouped as either intense or relaxed pragmatists. We find that some
privacy concerns are shared by older adults across several categories, the most
common being spam, unauthorized access to personal information, and information
misuse. We discuss theoretical implications based on the findings for our
understanding of privacy in the context of older adults' digital lives and
discuss implications for offering training appropriate for enhancing privacy
literacy in this age group.
