Data privacy in Botswana: Millennial’s protection strategies against web tracking

As users browse the internet clicking this and that, their web browser stores this information, which may include more personal details like their health status or financial challenges (Mayer and Mitchell, 2012). While this data is stored on their device, third parties can access and use it through web tracking techniques without prior consent or awareness of the user, leading to privacy concerns. This study sought to examine how millennials in Botswana protect their online data from third-party tracking by exploring their perceptions of private information, awareness of tracking techniques, and the mitigation measures they employ. In pursuance of this, eight interviews were conducted with millennials living in Botswana. The results of the study indicated that participants had limited awareness of third-party tracking and by comparison, were less concerned about it and more concerned about third parties gaining access to their financial and identification-related information for fraudulent purposes. Consequently, the findings also revealed that participants utilized very few measures to mitigate third-party tracking. Possible future studies could dig deeper into millennials' lack of concern for web tracking.