Older adults’ perceptions of digital surveillance by their loved ones: the role of technostress, conspiracy-mindedness, privacy behaviour and technology use

Like persons from other age groups, older adults are subject to various types of surveillance guided by nation states, commercial corporations and other individuals. Few studies have focused on the surveillance of older adults by members of their personal networks, such as family members and friends. Moreover, the existing studies have overlooked this phenomenon from a broader sociological perspective. The goal of this study is to explore older adults’ perceptions regarding digital social surveillance – that is, surveillance conducted by people from their personal networks using electronic devices and applications. The survey-based data was collected from 3,030 individuals aged 60 years and older who reside in Austria, Canada, Israel, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain. Using these data, we examined the extent to which respondents believed they were being digitally surveilled, their appraisal of such surveillance, and the associations between these two and sociodemographic factors, technostress, conspiracy-mindedness, online protective behaviours and technology use patterns. About 20 per cent of the respondents believed that people close to them were digitally surveilling them. To a varying extent and in different directions, technostress, conspiracy-mindedness, online protective behaviours, technology use patterns, country of residence and several sociodemographic factors (like gender and age) predicted the older adults’ belief and/or appraisal of digital social surveillance. By mapping the interplay of older age, digital surveillance and socio-technological factors, this study offers a better understanding of how older persons perceive and experience a particular aspect of the modern surveillance society.