Tracking or being tracked

The advancement of tracking technology has given people new ways to understand and rediscover themselves. These technologies provide new and unique challenges to individual privacy, particularly when privacy breaches become less apparent, and users are not adequately aware of privacy regulations and risks. Nonetheless, research on privacy concerns with self-tracking data remains inconclusive and poorly understood. Moreover, the fundamental concept of data self determination - the cornerstone of information privacy - is under attack as users fail to take the necessary precautions to protect themselves. The current study used a quantitative method to examine the overall profile of self-trackers as well as their attitudes, preferences, concerns, and hurdles to (better) privacy protection. Self-trackers, according to the findings, seek control over both their bodies (i.e., self-optimization) and their data. Additionally, people just expect to have full control over their data and are disinterested in enforcing it or devoting effort to it. This suggests that, while privacy is still associated with control, users' actions and decisions make them more susceptible to loss of data control. We contend that these findings are consistent with the privacy paradox as well as the failure of privacy self-management, as defined by [So13].