According to a Pennsylvania State University study, researchers found an individual's online privacy behaviors and habits vary based on the internet connection they are using. The study focused on participants' "publicness heuristic," which is a mindset that keeps a person from revealing private things in public settings, and it explored how the mindset works with different privacy-related scenarios in various locations. The research concluded that participants with a higher publicness heuristic viewed a public network as less secure than their home or a university network, which led them to disclose less information and participate in fewer unethical behaviors. "These results indicate a need to leverage the positive heuristics triggered by location, VPN logo and a terms and conditions statement for ethical design practices," Penn State James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects S. Shyam Sundar said.
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