The awareness of information acts to improve students' knowledge on managing personal information

Over the past years, the South African government has implemented different information acts to protect the South African individuals' information and their right to privacy. However, without the South African public's awareness of how to practically use these acts, the mere implementation is not enough. Many first-year students at the University of Johannesburg are not aware of the dangers of sharing personal information and are also not aware of the role that the different information acts play in their lives. This paper examines and assesses the level of awareness students have of four information acts, particularly with a particular focus on first year Information and Knowledge Management students at the University of Johannesburg. As part of the study, an in-depth literature review of the information acts in South Africa was conducted. The study employed a quantitative approach and questionnaires were designed with the sole purpose of gathering information. A pre-test, an intervention and a post-test were conducted to gain insight on whether the first year Information and Knowledge management students' knowledge and awareness of the Information acts would change the manner in which they would use and share their information. It was evident that awareness of the information acts have a direct effect on the individuals use and sharing of personal information. Pre-test results indicated that student's lack of awareness of the acts hampered their understanding of how the acts protects them, however the post-test indicated that awareness directly improves the individuals use of the acts.