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Facebook, MySpace Privacy Vulnerabilities |
Keywords:
Social Networks, FaceBook, MySpace
Citation:
Abstract
Online social networks such as Friendster, MySpace, or the
Facebook have experienced exponential growth in membership in recent
years. These networks offer attractive means for interaction and communication,
but also raise privacy and security concerns. In this study we
survey a representative sample of the members of the Facebook (a social
network for colleges and high schools) at a US academic institution, and
compare the survey data to information retrieved from the network itself.
We look for underlying demographic or behavioral differences between
the communities of the network’s members and non-members; we analyze
the impact of privacy concerns on members’ behavior; we compare
members’ stated attitudes with actual behavior; and we document the
changes in behavior subsequent to privacy-related information exposure.
We find that an individual’s privacy concerns are only a weak predictor of
his membership to the network. Also privacy concerned individuals join
the network and reveal great amounts of personal information. Some
manage their privacy concerns by trusting their ability to control the
information they provide and the external access to it. However, we also
find evidence of members’ misconceptions about the online community’s
actual size and composition, and about the visibility of members’ profiles.
Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross. Imagined Communities: Awareness, Information
Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook, Workshop on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PET) 2006.
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