Privacy - an Issue for eLearning? A Trend Analysis Reflecting the Attitude of European eLearning Users

Availing services provided via the Internet became a widely accepted means in organising one’s life. Beside others, eLearning goes with this trend as well. But, while employing Internet service makes life more convenient, at the same time, it raises risks with respect to the protection of the users’ privacy. This paper analyses the attitudes of eLearning users towards their privacy by, initially, pointing out terminology and legal issues connected with privacy. Further, the concept and implementation as well as a result analysis of a conducted study is presented, which explores the problem area from different perspectives. The paper will show that eLearning users indeed care for the protection of their personal information when using eLearning services. However, their attitudes and behaviour slightly differ. In conclusion, we provide first approaches of assisting possibilities for users how to resolve the difference of requirements and their actual activities with respect to privacy protection.