Details

How Students with Different Technical Backgrounds Use ChatGPT

Year: 2025

Term: Winter

Student Name: Confidential

Supervisor: Sonia Chiasson

Abstract: The use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT has become common in academic settings, prompting questions about how students navigate associated privacy and security risks. To investigate these concerns, 41 university students from technical and non-technical backgrounds were surveyed to examine their privacy concerns, privacy-protective behaviors, and experiences with ChatGPT’s privacy settings. Results showed that while overall concern levels were similar, technical students were more likely to be aware of and interact with privacy settings. Both groups reported basic privacy-protective behaviors but faced usability barriers, such as unclear or hard-to-locate privacy settings. These findings suggest a need for more transparent and accessible privacy controls to support safer AI use across technical backgrounds.