A Conceptual Examination of Distrusting Beliefs in Older Adults about the Internet

Older adults are adopting the Internet in increasing numbers today. At the same time they are also experiencing uncertainties about their safety and information privacy on this medium. Several media reports have shown a rising number of incidents involving older Internet user, that indicate lack of awareness of Internet-related security and privacy issues. This conceptual paper provides a framework to help understand the reasons why older adults might distrust the commercial websites in general. Based on established theoretical frameworks about trust, distrust and aging-based technology adoption challenges, we develop several postulates to explain distrusting beliefs that can result in precautious Internet behavior. Implications of this framework will be found in building educational programs and interventions for the population over the age of 55

Privacy and Security Practices in the Arena of Cloud Computing - A Research in Progress

Cloud Computing has become an important player in the field of IT infrastructure outsourcing. The convenience this new computation model brings can however be easily balanced out by the uncertainty behind the “cloud”. When so many organizations in the private and public sector are looking at cutting costs and resorting to Cloud services, it becomes imperative to investigate the amount of assurance the Cloud vendors give to their clients. In this paper we have thus explored the assurance related information available on the websites of some contemporary Cloud vendors and have tried to investigate if the characteristics of a vendor play any significant role in the vendor’s decision to adopt certain information assurance practices, specifically in the context of Privacy and Security

An Exploration of Security and Privacy Behavior of Elders on the Internet and comparison with Younger Adults

One of the fastest growing demographics to utilize the Web as part of their everyday life is the group of older adults who are aged 55 and above. The rising adoption of the Internet by older adults has resulted in both security and privacy problems for them. In this paper we develop a model to focus on the behavioral side of the security and privacy discussion among elders. For comparative purposes we also test the model with student subjects. We find considerable differences in the results between the elders and young adults and suggest potential issues that can be tested for understanding the differences