Networked Privacy Management in Facebook

Abstract

Users of social network services (SNSs) have to cope with a new set of privacy challenges because personal information on an SNS is often co-owned and co-managed by various distributed social ties. Using a multi-methods and multinational approach, we investigated Facebook users' privacy behavior by focusing on how they co-manage private information. Our findings from focus-group interviews (n = 28) and online surveys (n = 299) suggest that Facebook users primarily apply four different practices of privacy management: collaborative strategies, corrective strategies, preventive strategies, and information control. The four dimensions of privacy management display selective relationships with theoretical antecedents (e.g., self-efficacy, collective-efficacy, attitudes, privacy concern), indicating that each behavior is motivated by a different combination of conditions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.