Sex differences in attitudes towards online privacy and anonymity among Israeli students with different technical backgrounds

Introduction. In this exploratory study, we proposed an experimental framework to investigate and model male/female differences in attitudes towards online privacy and anonymity among Israeli students. Our aim was to comparatively model men and women's online privacy attitudes, and to assess the online privacy gender gap. Method. Various factors related to the user's online privacy and anonymity were considered, such as awareness of anonymous threats made online, concern for protecting personal information on the Internet, online privacy self-efficacy, online privacy literacy and users' tendency to engage in privacy paradox behaviour, i.e., personal data disclosure despite the awareness of anonymity and privacy threats. Analysis. A user study was carried out among 169 Israeli academic students through a quantitative method using closed-ended questionnaires. The subjects' responses were analysed using standard statistical measures. We then proposed a summarized comparative model for the two sexes' online privacy behaviour. Results. We found that a digital gap still exists between men and women regarding technological knowledge and skills used to protect their identity and personal information on the Web. Interestingly, users' tendency to engage in privacy paradox behaviour was not higher among men despite their higher level of technological online privacy literacy compared to women. Conclusions. Women's relatively high online privacy self-efficacy level and their low awareness of technological threat do not match their relatively low technological online privacy literacy level. This leads to a lower ability to protect their identity and personal information as compared to men. We conclude that further steps should be taken to eliminate the inter-gender technological gap in online privacy and anonymity awareness and literacy

Global Citizenship Education in and for Israel

Processes of globalisation, driven and enhanced by global organisations and agencies, have contributed to an increased interest in global citizenship education (GCE). This can be attributed to (and at the same time-is manifested in) the inclusion of GCE in UNESCO’s sustainable development goals, and its subsequent measurement through the OECD’s PISA in 2018. GCE has many applications and meanings, but it generally refers to educational policies and curricula aimed at preparing or encouraging pupils to partake, compete, and thrive in global society or help to solve global problems. In Israel, the intractable conflict and the highly diverse population have led to a divided education system that is very nationalistic; however, the nation has high aspirations in terms of its role in the global economy and its place in a global society. Thus, with regards to GCE, Israel is caught between its will to internationalise and its sectarian nature. This creates an interesting case through which to examine GCE, with a particular focus on the extent to which approaches and understandings of GCE within Israel differ from those devised by scholars with different contexts in mind. In this thesis, through interviews with teachers from different sectors and geographic areas, focus groups with pupils, and a documentary analysis of an official course produced by the Israeli MFA and MOE and additional sources, I explore the distinct meanings attributed to GCE across and within different groups in Israel. I argue that the extent and ways that different populations relate to it are informed by notions of peripherality across three levels- geographic, national, and social. The differential meanings of GCE that arise from my analysis based on this framework suggest that the discourses and tests produced and promoted by global organisations are neither relevant in global terms (i.e., global north/south) nor between or within countries

Privacy concerns in social commerce:The impact of gender

Today, social commerce is one of the most rapidly growing subsectors of e-commerce, creating new opportunities for brands of all types and sizes. However, despite its popularity and potential, social commerce faces significant challenges, including issues of privacy, trust and ethics. This paper sets out to identify key aspects of privacy which influence ongoing user engagement with social commerce, so that social media, and other social commerce, platforms can more effectively address the issue. In particular, the paper seeks to determine the extent to which these aspects of privacy are a function of gender and, therefore, to increase our understanding of the role of gender in determining a user’s likelihood of sustainable engagement with s-commerce. To explore these issues, the study deploys a mixed methodology (semi-structured interviews and questionnaires) to examine the views of a broad demographic of s-commerce users in Saudi Arabia. The results allowed us to identify three distinct aspects of online privacy that significantly influence the likelihood of engaging in s-commerce and also demonstrated that the relative importance of these aspects is a function of gender. The study enhances current understanding of the role of gender in intention to use s-commerce and provides a framework for further research. The findings of the study will be of interest to all parties involved in the design and provision of s-commerce services, including social media platforms.</p

Prospect Theory in Public Administration: does it matter in the Whistleblowing context?

The act of blowing the whistle is seen worldwide as a fundamental instrument to tackle the diffusion of a wide range of illicit phenomena that take place inside public and private organizations. The continuous evolution of the UE and US legislations confirms this view; nevertheless, whistleblowing rates are still very low. This discrepancy between the huge legislative efforts and the poor results in terms of witnesses’ trust towards the whistleblowing instruments explains the academics’ active interest and their awareness about the need for further research, in order to understand what prevents people from reporting and which policies could be effective to change their behavior and convince them to actively expose themselves. Among the instruments that influence the propensity to report, this thesis focuses on the role that information provision can have in shifting the individual beliefs and attitudes, as perfect and common information is an assumption that rarely holds in real life. Such incomplete knowledge partially explains why agents with the same self-declared willingness to report may act differently when they witness a misconduct in their working environment. Given the role of subjective perceptions and knowledge –and the fact that the same given information could provoke very different individual responses depending on how it has been framed and perceived– this thesis combines the whistleblowing literature with psychology theories (e.g. Cognitive Theory, Prospect Theory), in order to better interpret the processes behind the whistleblowing decision. Specifically, the aim is to test the role of how information is provided in terms of its framing, in order to understand if only the content matters or also its presentation, in light of the Prospect Theory findings. Given the importance of the agents’ active involvement, the content of such information concerns the concrete individuals’ benefits (costs) for whistleblowers from an economic and psychological perspective if they do (not) report a case of misconduct. One of the novelties of this work is that it constitutes a converging point between two streams of literature, that respectively analyze the relevance of Prospect Theory in the Public Administration context and in the whistleblowing panorama. In terms of methodology, in order to better test the effectiveness of this policy, the chosen approach consists in the exploitation of experimental designs. Thanks to this setup it is possible to infer causality, and claim whether the framing of the economic and psychological consequences for the civil servants if they do (not) report actually influences their behavior. The three chapters represent the different stages of analysis of the phenomenon of interest, ranging from the introduction to the topic and the related literature, the development of an experiment to test a new and specific hypothesis and the replication of the same survey, in order to better generalize and provide conclusions in light of an increased external validity. These stages are organized as follows: • Chapter 1 reviews all the contributions that analyze determinants of whistleblowing through experimental designs, to better understand the topic and provide the state of the art about how this approach has already been exploited. Particular attention is given to those papers that manipulate elements linked to public sector contexts; • Once a general panorama has been obtained, the second chapter empirically tests in a specific context if the individual attitude towards reporting some wrongdoing is influenced by whether and how the information has been delivered; • Given that experimental contributions are able to infer causality but, at the same time, can suffer from limited external validity, chapter 3 focuses on replicating the same experiment in another context and testing whether national culture matters and to what extent

The Impact of Gender Differences and Geographic Locations on Social Media Literacy Among Public Universities Students

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of both gender difference and geographic location on social media literacy levels among undergraduate students in public universities in Egypt. Four aspects related to social media literacy were considered in the Likert-scale survey, including basic technical skills, digital interactions, information evaluation, and privacy and security practices. A total of 520 students participated in this exploratory research, of which 265 males and 255 females enrolled at four public universities in different geographic locations. Cairo University and Ain Shams University represent the urban areas. The other two universities are located in center-periphery areas with Mansoura University representing the Nile Delta and Minia University representing Upper Egypt. Cross tabulation was used to analyze the subjects’ responses using the MS Excel and SPSS softwares. The findings showed that male students are more proficient in basic technical skills on social networking sites than their female counterparts. Moreover, it has been found that there is a slight higher awareness in favor of male students with regards to digital interactions and privacy practices. Concerning digital information evaluation, it appeared that male and female students share the same level of competence in verifying online content and being receptive to disparate opinions. The second part of the study analysis strongly indicated that urban students are more conversant with the four measured competences related to social media literacy than their center-periphery peers