Personal data privacy literacy (PDPL) refers to a collection of digital literacy skills related to an individuals ability to understand, evaluate, and manage the collection, use, and protection of personal data in online and digital environments. This study introduces and validates a new psychometric scale (PDPL Metric) designed to measure data privacy literacy among university students, focusing on six key privacy constructs: perceived risk of data misuse, expectations of informed consent, general privacy concern, privacy management awareness, privacy-utility trade-off acceptance, and perceived importance of data security. A 24-item questionnaire was developed and administered to students at U.S.-based research universities. Principal components analysis confirmed the unidimensionality and internal consistency of each construct, and a second-order analysis supported the integration of all six into a unified PDPL construct. No differences in PDPL were found based on basic demographic variables like academic level and gender, although a difference was found based on domestic/international status. The findings of this study offer a validated framework for assessing personal data privacy literacy within the higher education context and support the integration of the core constructs into higher education programs, organizational policies, and digital literacy initiatives on university campuses.

翻译：个人数据隐私素养（PDPL）是指与个人在在线和数字环境中理解、评估及管理个人数据的收集、使用和保护能力相关的一系列数字素养技能。本研究引入并验证了一个新的心理测量量表（PDPL量表），旨在测量大学生的数据隐私素养，重点关注六个关键的隐私构念：数据滥用的感知风险、知情同意预期、一般隐私关注、隐私管理意识、隐私-效用权衡接受度以及数据安全感知重要性。研究开发了一份包含24个项目的问卷，并对美国研究型大学的学生进行了调查。主成分分析确认了每个构念的单维性和内部一致性，二阶分析支持将所有六个构念整合为一个统一的PDPL构念。尽管基于国内/国际学生身份发现了差异，但未发现PDPL在学术水平和性别等基本人口统计学变量上存在差异。本研究的结果为在高等教育背景下评估个人数据隐私素养提供了一个经过验证的框架，并支持将这些核心构念整合到高等教育项目、组织政策以及大学校园的数字素养倡议中。