Privacy,trust and control: Which relationships with online self-disclosure?

A number of studies have examined the relationship between privacy concerns, perceived control over information, trust and online self-disclosure, highlighting different points of view to understand this connection. This paper intends to compare these different models of explanation for self-disclosure behaviors in online social networks. Three different hypotheses are verified, using mediation and moderation analyses. The results allow underling the effect of the interaction between privacy concerns and trust on online self-disclosure, along with the absence of a direct influence of privacy concerns on disclosure itself. The results suggest practical implications for online social network providers, most of all with regard to privacy policies in online environments.     

The ‘Privacy Paradox’ in the Social Web: The Impact of Privacy Concerns,Individual Characteristics,and the Perceived Social Relevance on Different Forms of Self‐Disclosure

Given the diffusion of the Social Web and increased disclosure of personal information online, the ‘privacy paradox’ suggests that while Internet users are concerned about privacy, their behaviors do not mirror those concerns. This study investigates the potential influence of privacy concerns, psychological traits, attitudes to the Social Web and age on self‐disclosure. Using an online survey of a representative sample of German Internet users (n = 2, 739), the variety and quality of self‐disclosure as well as access were measured. The findings indicate that privacy concerns hardly impact self‐disclosure, but different variables moderate this relation. Perceived social relevance and the number of applications used proved important. Users' general willingness to disclose is most important when providing sensitive information.     

Internet use and parental mediation: A cross-cultural study

The aim of this research project was to analyze the relationship between Internet use and parental mediation in a cross-cultural sample group. It also aimed to explore the relationship between parental mediation in Internet use and television viewing. The sample group comprised 1238 adolescents aged between 14 and 19, from eight different cultural contexts. The television viewing habits questionnaire (CH-TV.02) was used to analyze the following indicators: reason for use and hours spent on the Internet, parental mediation in Internet use and parental mediation in television viewing. The data were collected both by means of an online platform and in person. The results show a moderate use of the Internet with context-based variations, although the communicative function was predominant in all cultural contexts studied. Although significant differences were found between the different contexts, they were moderate in nature and should be interpreted with caution, given the size of the sample. In relation to parental mediation in Internet use, an exploratory factorial analysis found three types of mediation, with restrictive mediation and co-viewing being particularly relevant. As regards the profiles found, a Cluster analysis identified four profiles in the group of young people studied: instructive, inhibited, co-viewing and restrictive, with the inhibited profile being the one most frequently perceived by adolescents, followed by co-viewing, with significant differences being observed between cultures. Differences were observed in parental mediation in Internet use and television viewing in accordance with the medium in question and the context, a finding which may indicate that parents find it harder to engage in instructive mediation and co-viewing in relation to the Internet, since it is a medium that is less ergonomic and user-friendly than television.     

Influences of narcissism and parental mediation on adolescents' textual and visual personal information disclosure in Facebook

This study aims to examine how adolescents' textual and visual personal information disclosure is influenced by their narcissistic personality and parental mediation. The moderation effect of parental mediation on narcissism was also explored. A total of 780 secondary school students aged between 13 and 18 participated in the study. Multiple regression analysis was conducted and results showed that narcissism increases the disclosure of both textual information and visual information while parental mediation decreases the disclosure of both textual information and visual information. Parental mediation moderates the link between narcissism and visual information disclosure, but not the link between narcissism and textual information disclosure. Implications of the findings for parents, school teachers, and educators were discussed.     

The mediator role of self-disclosure and moderator roles of gender and social anxiety in the relationship between Chinese adolescents’ online communication and their real-world social relationships

Based on theory and previous research, we examined relationships among gender, social anxiety, self-disclosure, quality of real-world friendships and online communication by Chinese adolescent Internet users. Results indicated that online communication and self-disclosure are not related to quality of friendship, and online communication is positively related to self-disclosure. For adolescent boys and adolescents with high social anxiety, online communication can explain more variance in users’ self-disclosure, indicating that gender and social anxiety moderate the relationship between online communication and online self-disclosure.     

Comparing online opportunities and risks among Israeli children and youth Hebrew and Arabic speakers

This study explores the relationships between application usage, online communication patterns, problematic Internet use (PIU) of online applications, and online self-disclosure among children from culturally different groups. An online survey was administered in Hebrew and Arabic among 3867 Israeli 7–17 year old, including Jews, Arabs, and Bedouins. The level of PIU was relatively low—only 9.5% scored “very high” in the PIU index. For all the groups the highest level of communication was reported for safe interactions with family and friends, lower level for purely virtual communication with online acquaintances, and the lowest level for meeting online acquaintances face-to-face. However, various forms of the online communication patterns and use of applications differed across the groups, suggesting cultural diversity in Internet usage among children in the same country. PIU and self-disclosure explained 47.3% of variance in risky e-communication activities (e.g. sending ones' photos to online acquaintances, providing them with a school or home address, and meeting them face-to-face), as well as 34.4% of variance in exposure to unpleasant online experiences (e.g. receiving messages, pictures, or videos that make the children feel uncomfortable). However, both PIU and self-disclosure were unrelated to educational activities and to the use of educational applications.     

Exploring the Individual's Behavior on Self-Disclosure Online

Even though the ubiquity of technology can make many aspects of life more convenient, it may simultaneously raise some concerns about the privacy issues related to personal information. This research focused on the individual's behavior toward self-disclosure online and his or her cognition on personal privacy that was affected by not only the personal psychological factors but also the individual's computer knowledge and associated skills. To study how technological and psychological factors can simultaneously affect one's privacy concern and restrain behavior on disclosure, this study applied both perceived privacy and privacy concern to assess such factors as personal subjective attitude, computer self-efficacy, and perceived behavioral control to investigate the technological influence. A hypothesized model was proposed to describe the relationships among these constructs. After structural equation modeling is utilized to analyze the proposed hypotheses, the research findings showed that, although the perceived behavioral control had a negative effect on self-disclosure online, all the other hypotheses indicated a positive casual effect.     

Adolescents' response to parental Facebook friend requests: The comparative influence of privacy management,parent-child relational quality,attitude and peer influence

Smartphones greatly reduce parents' ability to monitor their children's online activities. A recommended surveillance technique is to ‘friend’ adolescents on social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook. However, adolescents use these sites to experiment with adjusting their self-image based on friends' feedback, so is it possible for them to simultaneously satisfy the very different expectations of both peers and parents? This study explores adolescents' attitudes to parental presence on Facebook using Communications Privacy Management theory (Petronio, 2002) as the theoretical framework to investigate the relative influence of privacy management, relational quality and peer pressure. The study was conducted among 262 secondary school children living at home and recruited via their schools. Results showed that while privacy management and peer influence were significantly related to adolescent attitudes to parental presence on Facebook, only attitude to parental presence on Facebook and parental-adolescent relational quality predicted friendship status. A picture emerged of adolescents very much in control of their SNS privacy who were largely indifferent to parents on Facebook. There was however, a sizable, peer-influenced minority, opposed to parental presence, for whom friendship may be counter-productive. While this study uncovered many unique associations relating to adolescent-parental Facebook friendship, further qualitative research is recommended to provide a deeper understanding of this complex subject.     

Meeting online contacts in real life among adolescents: The predictive role of psychosocial wellbeing and internet-specific parenting

Meeting online contacts in real life (IRL) has been associated with several risks, particularly for adolescents. This study aims to gain more insight into the prevalence of adolescents’ real life meetings with online contacts and the prevalence of telling parents about these real life meetings. In addition, the predictive role of adolescents’ psychosocial wellbeing and parents’ internet-specific parenting on meeting online contacts IRL was examined, and the predictive role of internet-specific parenting on parental knowledge about these meetings. Longitudinal data were collected among 1796 adolescents who participated in two measurements of the Dutch Monitor Internet and Youth. The results show that about 17% of the adolescents had real life encounters with online contacts and that about 30% of the parents of these youngsters was not aware about it. Low self-esteem increased the probability of future meetings with online contacts, whereas feelings of loneliness reduced this chance. Moreover, parental rules about the content of internet use and parental reactions to excessive internet use, may help to prevent future meetings with online contacts in real life. Parents’ awareness about these encounters was only cross-sectionally positively related to frequency and high quality of parent–child communication about internet.     

The interpersonal privacy identity (IPI): development of a privacy as control model

The Internet and social computing technology have revolutionized our ability to gather information as well as enabled new modes of communication and forms of self-expression. As the popularity of social computing technologies has increased, our society has begun to witness modifications in socialization behaviors. Social psychology theory suggests that technological changes can influence an individual’s expectation of privacy, through adaptive behaviors resulting from use (Laufer and Wolfe in J Soc Issues 33(3): 22–42 (1977)). We adapt traditional privacy theory to explore the influence of developmental and environmental factors on the individual’s inner privacy identity, which is comprised of the individual’s belief in his or her right to control (1) personal information and (2) interactions with others, and is continuously shaped by privacy experiences. We then use the inner privacy identity to examine interpersonal behaviors in the online context. We find that individuals’ belief in their right to control their information impacts their information disclosure practices when consequences are implied and that their belief in their right to control the interaction impacts their online information sharing practices. We do not find support for a relationship between the interaction management component of the IPI and online interaction behavior, which considered in the presence of the relationship between interaction management and online information sharing, suggests that interaction behavior is more complicated in the online context. Insights from the model developed in this study can inform future studies of situational privacy behaviors.     

Is online trust and trust in social institutions associated with online disclosure of identifiable information online?

This study investigated the association between trust in individuals, social institutions and online trust on the disclosure of personal identifiable information online. Using the Internet attributes approach that argues that some structural characteristics of the Internet such as lack of social cues and controllability are conducive to a disinhibitive behavior it was expected that face to face trust and online trust will not be associated. In addition, it was expected that from the three components of trust, online trust only will be associated with the disclosure of identifiable personal information online. A secondary analysis of the 2009 Pew and American Life of Internet users (n = 1698) survey was conducted. In contrast with the Internet attribute approach the effect of trust in individuals and institutions was indirectly associated with the disclosure of identifiable information online. Trust in individuals and institutions were found to be associated with online trust. However, online trust only, was found to be associated with the disclosure of personal identifiable information. While trust online encourages the disclosure of identifiable information, perception of privacy risks predicted refraining from posting identifiable information online. The results show a complex picture of the association of offline and online characteristics on online behavior.     

How Internet Users' Privacy Concerns Have Evolved since 2002

In 2002, the authors established a baseline for Internet users' online privacy values, finding information transfer, notice/awareness, and information storage were the top online privacy concerns. Since this survey, many privacy-related events have occurred, including changes in online trends and the creation of laws, prompting the authors to rerun the survey in 2008 to examine how these events might have affected users' online privacy concerns. In this article, they discuss the 2008 survey, which revealed that US Internet users' top three privacy concerns didn't change over the course of six years, although their level of concern did. The authors also examine differences in privacy concerns between US and international respondents. The Web extra groups the survey statements according to six dimensions of privacy concerns based on the following classifications—personalization, notice/awareness, information transfer, information collection, information storage, and access/participation.     

Solving the privacy paradox: A counter-argument experimental approach

This study investigates why ordinary online users highly concerned about the misuse of personal information do not adopt privacy-protective behaviors, or even engage in risky behaviors, on the Internet. Given that people have few chances to directly experience privacy infringement and tend to be unfamiliar with technical terms, their opinions as reflected in conventional polls tend to be instantaneous reactions to survey questionnaires, lacking thoughtfulness. By adopting a counterargument experimental technique, this study produced three important findings: (1) people’s opinions about online privacy are swayed after being presented with a message containing a counterargument; (2) this persuasion effect is pronounced among people with a low level of online knowledge or who assess the presented message’s argument as strong; and (3) the privacy paradox is found in conventional polls but disappears in counterargument conditions. These findings imply that opinions concerning online privacy should not be estimated through conventional polling. Rather, alternative polls (e.g., deliberative polls) should be adopted for online privacy policy-making.     

Factors affecting privacy disclosure on social network sites: an integrated model

The self-disclosure of personal information by users on social network sites (SNSs) play a vital role in the self-sustainability of online social networking service provider platforms. However, people’s levels of privacy concern increases as a direct result of unauthorized procurement and exploitation of personal information from the use of social networks which in turn discourages users from disclosing their information or encourages users to submit fake information online. After a review of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the privacy calculus model, an integrated model is proposed to explain privacy disclosure behaviors on social network sites. Thus, the aim of this paper is to find the key factors affecting users’ self-disclosure of personal information. Using privacy calculus, the perceived benefit was combined into the Theory of Planned Behavior, and after some modifications, an integrated model was prescribed specifically for the context of social network sites. The constructs of information sensitivity and perceived benefit were redefined after reviewing the literature. Through a study on the constructs of privacy concern and self-disclosure, this article aims at reducing the levels of privacy concern, while sustaining online transactions and further stimulating the development of social network sites.     

The key role of relevance in personalized advertisement: Examining its impact on perceptions of privacy invasion,self-awareness,and continuous use intentions

Internet advertising has become increasingly personalized as advertisers tailor content to individual users. However, this has led consumers to be concerned about their privacy. Based on rational choice theory and self-awareness theory, the current research explores the role of relevance in personalized advertisements and examines its impact on perceptions of privacy invasion, self-awareness, and subsequent continuous use intentions of personalized advertising. Analysis of survey data from 386 online users found that although privacy invasion perceptions are negatively related to continuous use intentions, perceived advertisement relevance mitigates consumer's privacy concerns. Perceived relevance was also found to be positively related to consumer's continuous use intentions through the mediation of self-awareness. This research identifies and highlights the importance of relevance in the tension between privacy concerns and personalized advertisements.     

Dimensionality of information disclosure behavior

In studies of people's privacy behavior, the extent of disclosure of personal information is typically measured as a summed total or a ratio of disclosure. In this paper, we evaluate three information disclosure datasets using a six-step statistical analysis, and show that people's disclosure behaviors are rather multidimensional: participants' disclosure of personal information breaks down into a number of distinct factors. Moreover, people can be classified along these dimensions into groups with different “disclosure styles”. This difference is not merely in degree, but rather also in kind: one group may for instance disclose location-related but not interest-related items, whereas another group may behave exactly the other way around. We also found other significant differences between these groups, in terms of privacy attitudes, behaviors, and demographic characteristics. These might for instance allow an online system to classify its users into their respective privacy group, and to adapt its privacy practices to the disclosure style of this group. We discuss how our results provide relevant insights for a more user-centric approach to privacy and, more generally, advance our understanding of online privacy behavior.     

Exploring the relationship between adolescents' self-concept and their offline and online social worlds

Recent research has established online social lives as a significant aspect of adolescents' lives and development. The current study considered the relationship between adolescents' offline (i.e., ‘real life’) and online social worlds and their self-concept, which is a broad indicator of well-being during adolescence. In this quantitative study, 733 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 18 (M = 15, SD = 2.33) were surveyed about their online and offline social worlds and self-concept. Regression analysis revealed the moderating effect of online socializing in the relationship between offline social life and general self-concept, consistent with a ‘Rich Get Richer’ hypothesis of online use.     

Antecedents and outcomes of information privacy concerns in a peer context: An exploratory study

Academic studies typically view privacy threats as originating solely from organizations. With the rise of social media, such a view is incomplete because consumers increasingly face risks from peers’ misuse of data. In this paper, we study information privacy in the context of peer relationships on commercial social media sites. We develop a model that considers relationships between the constructs of privacy experiences, privacy awareness, trust, risk, and benefits and how those relationships impact individuals’ disclosure behaviors. We test the model by creating a survey that includes a number of measures that were taken directly from or were closely based on measures from prior studies. We conduct seven pilot tests of undergraduate students in order to validate the survey items. Working with the online survey firm Qualtrics, we gather a dataset of 314 Facebook users’ responses to our validated survey, and we test our model using partial least squares techniques. We find that both privacy experiences and privacy awareness are quite significant predictors of privacy concerns. We also find that trust, risk, benefits, and privacy concerns work together to explain a large amount (37%) of the variance in disclosure behaviors. We discuss implications for practice and for future research.     

Factors mediating disclosure in social network sites

In this paper, we explore how privacy settings and privacy policy consumption (reading the privacy policy) affect the relationship between privacy attitudes and disclosure behaviors. We present results from a survey completed by 122 users of Facebook regarding their information disclosure practices and their attitudes about privacy. Based on our data, we develop and evaluate a model for understanding factors that affect how privacy attitudes influence disclosure and discuss implications for social network sites. Our analysis shows that the relationship between privacy attitudes and certain types of disclosures (those furthering contact) are controlled by privacy policy consumption and privacy behaviors. This provides evidence that social network sites could help mitigate concerns about disclosure by providing transparent privacy policies and privacy controls.