Baby Boomers Are Better at Protecting Their Online Privacy Than Younger People

An Axios survey estimated that people 65 and older are more likely to read online privacy policies before accepting them, with 15 percent in this demographic "always" accepting a privacy policy before reading, versus 46 percent of people 18 to 25, reports MarketWatch . Older adults also are more likely than younger adults to stress the importance of understanding these policies. "Consumers are increasingly aware that companies share and sell their personal data in exchange for free services, but consumers' privacy concerns aren't translating into concrete action to protect their data," the study said. One possible factor is that older adults have longer attention spans than their younger counterparts because they did not grow up with social media, sound bites, or smartphones. Baby boomers and older Americans seem more like to go to the trouble of reading privacy policies through before accepting them. A separate OpenVPN study found older populations were more likely to use higher levels of security, with about 65 percent of baby boomers more likely to use biometric passwords, compared to 40 percent of millennials.