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Publication Date

Summer 2025

Degree Type

Thesis - Campus Access Only

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor

Juzi Zhao; Chao-Li Tarng; Jalel Rejeb

Abstract

Data privacy is becoming increasingly important in today’s society. This is due to the increasing prominence of the Internet in our everyday lives, as well as our heavily increased reliance on remote communication due, in large part, to the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Over the past decade, the ability to protect one’s data when browsing the Internet has become an increasingly prominent concern among the general public as the implications of online companies being able to track and collect the personal data of their users becomes a more frequent topic of discussion. This thesis aims to address the effectiveness of current data privacy rights in America by surveying various American citizens on their current views and familiarity with both data privacy and legislation related to it. We then compared our findings to similar surveys conducted within the past few years. The results of our survey show that consumers are more proactive in protecting their data privacy and more concerned with the collection of their data online compared to previous surveys. However, respondents appear to be less familiar with data privacy legislation within their respective states than a number of other countries, and a moderate majority of people who are familiar with current data privacy legislation are not confident in the legislation’s ability to protect their personal data.

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