Those under 30 learn to guard privacy

Min Liu,a liberal arts student at the New School in New York City,got a Facebook account at 17 and chronicled her college life in detail...

Min Liu,a liberal arts student at the New School in New York City,got a Facebook account at 17 and chronicled her college life in detail,from rooftop drinks with friends to dancing at a downtown club. Recently,though,she has had second thoughts.

Concerned about her career prospects,she asked a friend to take down a photograph of her drinking and wearing a tight dress. When the woman overseeing her internship asked to join her Facebook circle,Liu agreed,but limited access to her Facebook page. I want people to take me seriously, she said.

Conventional wisdom suggests that everyone under 30 is comfortable revealing every facet of their lives online. While participation in social networks is still strong,a survey released last month by the University of California,Berkeley,found that more than half the young adults questioned had become more concerned about privacy than they were five years ago.

They are more diligent than older adults. In a new study,the Pew Internet Project has found that people in their 20s exert more control over their digital reputations than older adults,more vigorously deleting unwanted posts and limiting information about themselves. Social networking requires vigilance,not only in what you post,but what your friends post about you, said Mary Madden,a senior research specialist who oversaw the study by Pew.

Erosion of privacy has become a pressing issue among active users of social networks. Last week,Facebook scrambled to fix a security breach that allowed users to see their friends supposedly private information.

Sam Jackson,a junior at Yale,said he had learned not to trust any social network to keep his information private. There are things four years ago I would not say today, he said. I am much more self-censoring.

Mistrust of the intentions of social sites appears to be pervasive. In its survey of 1,000 people,the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology found that 88 per cent of the 18- to 24-year-olds it surveyed last July said there should be a law that requires websites to delete stored information. And 62 per cent said they wanted a law that gave people the right to know everything a website knows about them.