| The effectiveness of an educational intervention in evaluating and enhancing senior citizens' awareness and concern on the effect of technology on privacy was measured. Volunteers at six senior citizen centers in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, participated in the study, which consisted of a questionnaire to assess initial levels of awareness and concern regarding the subject matter, a half-hour educational intervention one week after the initial questionnaire, and a subsequent questionnaire immediately after the intervention to evaluate the intervention's effectiveness. The anonymous questionnaires solicited basic demographic data and participants' awareness and concern regarding 24 types of general, financial, and medical information using a five-point Likert scale. The educational intervention included the topics of (a) What is privacy? (b) Why is it important to understand technology's effect on privacy? (c) How have technological advances impacted the concept of privacy? (d) What types of private information are affected? (e) How is this information used? and (f) How can we protect our privacy? A control group experienced the sequence of initial questionnaire, subsequent questionnaire one week after the initial questionnaire, and then the education intervention immediately following the subsequent questionnaire. The results indicate that the senior citizens had moderate levels of awareness and concern regarding the effect of technology on privacy, and that the intervention was successful in increasing participants' awareness, but not concern, regarding the subject matter. The findings are congruent with theories of mass communication effectiveness and support the position that education is an important component in forwarding privacy policy and legislation. |
