LAUSR

Since the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 all over the world, many countries, including China, are taking measures for epidemic prevention and control, and some measures require citizens to provide personal privacy information. In the era of big data, it is worth paying attention to how people view the collection of personal privacy data under the special background that China collects personal information to better fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. In particular, it is of great significance and value to explore the privacy concept of Chinese higher education groups, the most important participants in the era of big data in China. This study focuses on the privacy concept of Chinese higher education groups under the background of COVID-19 epidemic, and higher education groups from 19 provinces, 4 municipalities and 4 autonomous regions are selected as research samples. Through questionnaire survey and statistical analysis, individual privacy sensitivity, individual privacy deliver willingness, individual privacy security and other issues of Chinese higher education groups under the COVID-19 epidemic situation are discussed. And this study tries to explore the influencing factors behind it. It is found that Chinese higher education groups generally have high privacy sensitivity and high perception of privacy risk. However, in the special period of fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic, Chinese higher education groups generally have a high willingness to deliver private information and a high privacy security. In addition, education level, discipline background and parents' education level are important factors affecting the privacy concept of Chinese higher education groups. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.