Online privacy concerns of communication faculty students: The case of Aksaray University

Social media has become more influential in daily life through digital communication. This situation produces both positive and negative effects on individuals' professional and private lives. For instance, social media users are able to monitor their surroundings through developing digital communication networks. Consequently, the phenomena of surveillance and privacy undergo transformation due to digitalization. This study aims to measure the online privacy concerns of university students. The Online Privacy Concern Scale, originally developed by Buchanan and colleagues (2007) and adapted to Turkish culture by Turgay Alakurt (2017), was applied to 272 students at Aksaray University Faculty of Communication through simple random sampling. The data obtained were analyzed using statistical techniques. The results indicate that university students' privacy concerns are at a moderate level. It was also revealed that students are aware of the privacy risks they face in digital environments; however, they do not take sufficient precautions.