Abstract
This study examined the awareness of digital footprints and its implications for the ethical cyber behavior of undergraduate Library and Information Science (LIS) students in Kwara State, Nigeria. The study used a qualitative design and conducted semi-structured Zoom interviews with nine final-year LIS students from three universities representing federal, state, and private ownership in the state. Researchers purposively selected participants based on inclusion criteria, then transcribed and interpreted the interviews using reflexive thematic analysis, viewed through the lens of communication privacy management. The findings indicate that the students shared a broad familiarity with the idea of a digital footprint and a fluent vocabulary of cyber-ethical principles. Yet, their grasp of the longer-term consequences of their online conduct remained shallow. A recurring gap emerged between the ethical commitments the students professed and the conduct their own accounts revealed, a pattern consistent with the privacy paradox reported in the wider literature. Students placed considerable responsibility on the university and showed a clear appetite for structured guidance. The study concludes that a fluent ethical vocabulary is not the same as protective competence and recommends that Nigerian universities embed digital-footprint management and cyber ethics in the LIS curriculum and library user education.
Recommended Citation
Dunmade, Aderinola Ololade; Adewojo, Akinade Adebowale; and Issa, Abdulwahab Olanrewaju
(2026)
"Awareness of Digital Footprints and Its Implications for the Ethical Cyber Behavior of Undergraduate Library and Information Science Students in Kwara State, Nigeria,"
Journal of Research Initiatives: Vol. 9:
Iss.
3, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/jri/vol9/iss3/4