Father showing young child how to use computer

How much time do you spend online? Most Americans spend 24 hours a week online, but a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center indicates that most people in the U.S. struggle with understanding online privacy and cybersecurity. In fact, the majority of people polled answered fewer than half the questions in the study correctly. If you want to find out how your digital literacy compares to those polled, take our quiz below.

The Questions:

  1. True or False: Phishing scams can occur on social media, websites, email, or text messages.
  2. True or False: Cookies allow websites to track user visits and site activity.
  3. True or False: Advertising is the largest source of revenue for most social media platforms.
  4. True or False: Privacy policies are contracts between websites and users about how those sites will use their data.
  5. True or False: Net neutrality describes the principle that internet service providers should treat all traffic on their networks equally.
  6. True or False: “Https://” in a URL means that information entered into the site is encrypted.
  7. True or False: WhatsApp and Instagram are both owned by Facebook.
  8. True or False: Two-factor authentication is a process that requires users to provide a password as well as another form of identity verification in order to access specific online content.
  9. True or False: Private browsing mode only prevents someone using the same computer from seeing one’s online activities.
  10. True or False: Jack Dorsey is the cofounder of Twitter and Square.

The Answers:

Man making checkmark in the air
  1. True – phishing scams can occur across digital platforms, including social media, websites, email, and text messages. It’s important to avoid clicking links received from unknown users and accessing digital content if you’re unsure of the security risk.
  2. True – cookies allow websites to track user visits and site activity. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored on a user’s browser, and they were originally designed to remember important information like items that were added to shopping carts on ecommerce sites. Today, cookies will remember just about any clicks, entered text, or other user activities.
  3. True – marketing accounts for 59% of revenue for social media platforms. Other sources of income for social media include exclusive licensing and corporate consulting.
  4. True – a website’s privacy policy is a legal document that lays out how the website will utilize user information and personal data.
  5. True – net neutrality is the principle that governs internet service providers, ensuring all users have equal access to their networks.
  6. True – “Https://” indicates that site content is encrypted.
  7. True – Facebook owns both WhatsApp and Instagram as well as Oculus VR, FriendFeed, and LiveRail.
  8. True – Two factor authentication is a process to verify the identity of users by inputting information only the user would have, using at least two of the following methods: passwords, outside device verification (phone, tablet, etc.), phone number, token key, fingerprint, eye scan, facial recognition, etc.
  9. True – incognito or private browsing modes only mask your activity from other users on your device. Websites, service providers, and employers will still have access to your activity.
  10. True – Jack Dorsey is the cofounder of Twitter and Square. He also served on Disney’s board of directors from 2013 to 2018, judged the NYC BigApps competition in 2011, and is a member of the Berggruen Institute’s Governance Center board.

How You Match Up:

  1. 67% of people answered correctly
  2. 63% of people answered correctly
  3. 59% of people answered correctly
  4. 48% of people answered correctly
  5. 45% of people answered correctly
  6. 30% of people answered correctly
  7. 29% of people answered correctly
  8. 28% of people answered correctly
  9. 24% of people answered correctly
  10. 15% of people answered correctly

Let IT ArchiTeks Help Improve Your Digital Literacy

Young woman using computer in public computer lab

At IT ArchiTeks, we offer a range of computer support and repair services to help your business maintain secure and functional online activity. Even if you have great digital literacy, it’s likely you have employees who don’t, but with employee monitoring and other services from IT ArchiTeks, you can keep your business information secure online.