Парадокс конфиденциальности и социальные сети: почему пользователи раскрывают свои персональные данные

Abstract

With the development of the worldwide Internet, the security of private data in the online space has become an increasing concern. On the one hand, users post a lot of information about themselves; on the other hand, they are very concerned about the safety of this information. Thereby a privacy paradox emerges: the difference between attitudes to information privacy and actual user behaviour. This article examines different approaches to the interpretation of this phenomenon. The authors of the article identify the motives for using social media. A study was conducted to define the relation between these motives and the attitude of young people with regards to confidentiality, which directly influences the confidentiality paradox occurrence. The survey method and a statistical method for studying relationships and a correlation analysis were used to solve the problem. The authors found that offline privacy is important among most young people, yet more than half of those asked considered online security to be very important as well. Positive and negative correlations were found between reasons for using social media and users’ privacy behaviour. The results of the study identified a correlation between active and passive users’ security settings and motivations for using social media. The authors conclude that users are aware of the high vulnerability of personal data on the Internet, however, may consciously sacrifice their security for the benefits that influence their motives for using social media: online identity, fear of missing out, convenience, sharing, information consumption and communication.