NEW YORK – Despite widespread anecdotes pointing otherwise, a new study finds that young adults care more about online privacy than previously thought.

In many cases, they care as much as older people. That's according to researchers at UC Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers also found, however, that young adults' knowledge of online privacy issues is limited. In many cases they believe the government will offer them privacy protections that do not actually exist.

The report, to be released Thursday, is among the first quantitative studies looking at young people's attitudes toward privacy. It's based on a national, telephone survey of 1,000 Americans.