The privacy paradox on social network sites revisited: The role of individual characteristics and group norms

Vol.3,No.2(2009)

Abstract
Users of social network sites (SNS) often state that they are concerned about their privacy, yet they often disclose detailed personal information on their profiles. This paper assessed the privacy settings of users of two large European SNS. More importantly, it also examined which factors predict the choice of specific privacy settings. The main focus was on the trade-off between privacy concerns and impression management. The paper also looked at the role of the dispositional variables trust and narcissism. These individual factors were contrasted with the effects of perceived group norms. Across three studies it was found that the vast majority of users protected at least certain parts of their profile (e.g., pictures, email address). Moreover, higher protection of profiles was consistently predicted by greater privacy concerns. Impression management motives and narcissism led to less restrictive privacy settings, but these results were less consistent across studies. Perceived social norms played a role in both SNS, whereas dispositional trust had no effect.

Keywords:
social network sites; privacy settings; privacy concerns; social norms
Author biographies

Sonja Utz

Author photoSonja Utz is an assistant professor at the Department of Communication Science, VU University Amsterdam. She graduated in psychology at the Catholic University of Eichstätt (Germany) where she also received her Ph.D. in 1999. Her research interests include social processes in social network sites and other virtual communities, social dilemmas in cyberspace, trust in cyberspace (e.g. eBay), and knowledge management.

Nicole C. Krämer

Author photoNicole Krämer is Professor for "Social Psychology - Media and Communication" at the University Duisburg-Essen since 2007. She finished her PhD in Psychology at the University of Cologne in 2001. In the academic year 2003/2004 she was visiting scholar and visiting lecturer at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. In 2006 she received the venia legendi for psychology with a habilitation thesis on "Social effects of embodied conversational agents" at the University of Cologne. Her research interests include human-computer-interaction, social psychological aspects of Web 2.0, nonverbal behaviour and computer supported instructional communication.
References

Ajzen I. & Fishbein M. (1977). Attitude-behavior relations: A theoretical analysis and review of empirical research. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 888-918.

Banczyk, B., & Krämer, N. C. & Senokozlieva, M. (2008). “the wurst” meets “fatless” in MySpace. The relationship between self-esteem, personality and self-presentation in an online community. Paper presented at the Congress of the International Communication Association, May 2008, Montreal, Canada.

Barnes, S.B. (2006). A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States. First Monday, 11, Retrieved August 8, 2008 from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs...

Berger D. (2006, September 9). Facebook get the hint, adds privacy setting to News Feed. Retrieved August 8, 2008 from www.gadgetell.com/tech/comment/facebook-gets.../

Berkowitz, A.D., & Perkins, H.W. (1986). Problem drinking among college students: A review of recent research. Journal of American College Health, 35, 21-28.

Bosau, C., Fischer, O., & Koll, M. (2008, July). StudiVZ - Determinants of social networking and dissemination of information among students. Paper presented at the International Congress of Psychology, Berlin (Germany).

boyd, d. (2006) ‘Friends, friendsters, and Top 8:Writing community into being on social network sites’ First Monday, 11, Retrieved March 9, 2007, fromhttp://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs...

boyd, d., & Ellison, N. (2007) ‘Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1), Retrieved January 30, 2008 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

Buffardi L.E., & Campbell, W.K. (2008) Narcissism and social networking web sites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 1303-1314.

Christofides, E., Muise, M., & Desmarais, S. (2009). Information disclosure and control on Facebook: Are they two sides of the same coin or two different processes? CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12, 341-345.

Dwyer C., Hiltz, S. R., & Passerini K. (2007). Trust and privacy concern within social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace. AMCIS Proceedings 2007: Paper 339.

Garfinkel, S. (2000). Database nation: The death of privacy in the 21st century. Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly.

Gefen, D. (2000). E-commerce: the role of familiarity and trust. Omega: The International Journal of Management Science, 28, 725–37.

Gross, R., & Acquisti A. (2005). Information revelation and privacy in online social networks. Alexandria, VA. ACM Workshop on privacy in the Electronic Society.

Ibrahim, Y. (2009). Social Networking Sites (SNS) and the'Narcissistic Turn'. The politics of self-exposure. In S. Rummler & K. B. Ng (Eds.), Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design: Emerging Trends in User Experiences (pp. 82-95.). Hershey, PA: Idea Group Inc.

Keen, A. (2007). The cult of the amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture. New York: Doubleday/Currency.

Kleinz, T. (2009). Facebook scheitert mit Klage gegen StudiVZ. Retrieved October 27, 2009, from http://www.focus.de/digital/internet/soziale-netzwerke...

Kramer, R.M. (1999). Trust and Distrust in Organizations: Emerging Perspectives, Enduring Questions. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 569-598.

Krämer, N.C., & Winter, S. (2008). Impression Management 2.0. The relationship of self-esteem, extraversion, self-efficacy, and self-presentation within social networking sites. Journal of Media Psychology, 20(3), 106-116.

Latane, B. (1981). The psychology of social impact. American Psychologist, 36, 343-356.

Lenhart, A. (2009). Adults and social network sites. Retrieved February 17, 2009, from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009...

Lenhart A., & Madden, M. (2007). Teens, privacy & online social networks. Pew Internet & American Life Project 2007. Retrieved August 8, 2008 from http://www.pewinternet.org...

Lewis, K., Kaufman, J., & Christakis, N. (2008). The taste for privacy: An analysis of college student privacy settings in an online social network. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(1), 79-100.

Livingstone, S. (2008). Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers' use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. New Media & Society, 10, 339-411.

Livingstone, S. (2006). Children’s privacy online: Experimenting with boundaries within and beyond the family. In R. Kraut, M. Brynin, & S. Kiesler (Eds.), Computers, Phones, and the Internet: Domesticating Information Technology (pp. 128–44). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McKnight, D.H., Choudhury, V., & Kacmar, C. (2002). Developing and validating trust measures for e-Commerce: an integrative typology. Information Systems Research, 13, 334-361.

Orlet, C. (2007, March 2). The look-at-me generation. The American Spectator. Retrieved August 8, 2008 from www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11093

Pedersen, E.R., LaBrie, J.W., & Lac, A. (2008). Assessment of perceived and actual alcohol norms in varying contexts: Exploring Social Impact Theory among college students. Addictive Behaviors, 33, 552-564.

Raskin, R., & Terry H. (1988). A principal components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 890-902.

Rosen, C. (2007). Virtual friendship and the new narcissism. The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society, Summer, 17, 15-31.

Siibak, A. (2009). Constructing the Self through the Photo selection-Visual Impression Management on Social Networking Websites. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychological Research on Cyberspace, 3(1). Retrieved October 27, 2009, from http://cyberpsychology.eu/...

Stein, L., & Sinha, N. (2002). New Global Media and Communication Policy: The Role of the State in Twenty-first Century. In L. Lievrouw & S. Livingstone (Eds.), Handbook of New Media: Social Shaping and Consequences of ICTs (pp. 410–31). London: Sage.

Story, L., & Stone, B. (2007, November 30). Facebook retreats on online tracking. New York Times, Retrieved August 8, 2008 from www.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/technology/30face.html

Synovate (2008, September 3). Netherlands in the lead in social networking. Retrieved September 4, 2008 from http://www.synovate.nl/nieuws/20081009001/news.aspx

Thelwall, M. (2008). Social networks, gender, and friending: An analysis of MySpace member profiles. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59, 1321-1330.

Tufekci, Z. (2008). Can you see me now? Audience and disclosure regulation in online social network sites. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 28, 20-36.

Utz S. (2008). (Selbst)marketing auf Hyves [(Self)marketing on Hyves]. In P. Alpar & S. Blaschke (Eds.), Web2.0. Eine empirische Bestandsaufnahme [Web2.0 - an empirical inventory] (pp. 233-258). Wiesbaden, Germany: Vieweg & Teubner.

Van Lange, P.A.M, Van Vugt, M., Meertens, R.M., & Ruiter, R.A.C. (1998). A social dilemma analysis of commuting preferences: The roles of social value orientation and trust. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 796-820.

Zhao, S., Grasmuck, S., & Martin, J. (2008). Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 1816–1836.

Metrics

15741

Views

15769

HTML views