Self-Disclosure on Facebook: Comparing two Research Organisations

This study investigated whether there is a difference in self-disclosure on Facebook between employees of an Australian government organisation and an academic institution. We employed quantitative and qualitative approaches, including an online questionnaire of 216 participants and ten interviews. The two organisations were compared on organisational variables, and measures of Privacy Concerns, Privacy Behaviour and Propensity to Trust as potential predictors of self-disclosure. Privacy Behaviour and Propensity to Trust were significant predictors for the government organisation, whereas demographic and organisational factors were the main predictors for the academic institution. Furthermore, qualitative findings revealed that, whilst the government participants focussed on the costs of self-disclosure on Facebook, the academic institution participants focussed on the benefits of self-disclosure. These results provide preliminary support for our online self-disclosure model, and highlight the importance of considering different organisations and populations in studies of online self-disclosure and privacy

Informational Privacy and Self-Disclosure Online: A Critical Mixed-Methods Approach to Social Media

This thesis investigates the multifaceted processes that have contributed to normalising identifiable self-disclosure in online environments and how perceptions of informational privacy and self-disclosure behavioural patterns have evolved in the relatively brief history of online communication. Its investigative mixed-methods approach critically examines a wide and diverse variety of primary and secondary sources and material to bring together aspects of the social dynamics that have contributed to the generalised identifiable self-disclosure. This research also utilises the results of the exploratory statistical as well as qualitative analysis of an extensive online survey completed by UCL students as a snapshot in time. This is combined with arguments developed from an analysis of existing published sources and looks ahead to possible future developments. This study examines the time when people online proved to be more trusting, and how users of the Internet responded to the development of the growing societal need to share personal information online. It addresses issues of privacy ethics and how they evolved over time to allow a persistent association of online self-disclosure to real-life identity that had not been seen before the emergence of social network sites. The resistance to identifiable self-disclosure before the widespread use of social network sites was relatively resolved by a combination of elements and circumstances. Some of these result from the demographics of young users, users' attitudes to deception, ideology and trust-building processes. Social and psychological factors, such as gaining social capital, peer pressure and the overall rewarding and seductive nature of social media, have led users to waive significant parts of their privacy in order to receive the perceived benefits. The sociohistorical context allows this research to relate evolving phenomena like the privacy paradox, lateral surveillance and self-censorship to the revamped ethics of online privacy and self-disclosure

Too Crowded to Disclose! Exploring the Relationship Between Online Crowdedness and Self-Disclosure

Nowadays, people communicate with many others online. Of the online sites, product review pages have become an important communication medium on which consumers share information about a product. Drawing upon this trend, we examined the factors that affect reviewers’ self-disclosure behavior. Prior studies have found that privacy behaviors such as self-disclosure are affected by diverse contextual factors. In this study, we propose that online crowdedness is an important contextual factor for self-disclosure behavior. Using review data from the largest online apparel rental site in the U.S., we empirically explored the relationship between online crowdedness and self-disclosure behavior. The result shows that online crowdedness can discourage self-disclosure behavior

Making Decisions about Self-Disclosure in Online Social Networks

This paper explores privacy calculus decision making processes for online social networks (OSN). Content analysis method is applied to analyze data obtained from face-to-face interviews and online survey with open-ended questions of 96 OSN users from different countries. The factors users considered before self-disclosing are explored. The perceived benefits and risks of using OSN and their impact on self-disclosure are also identified. We determine that the perceived risks of OSN usage hinder self-disclosure. It is not clear, however, whether the perceived benefits offset the impact of the risks on self-disclosure behavior. The findings as a whole do not support privacy calculus in OSN settings

Your Privacy Is Your Friend's Privacy: Examining Interdependent Information Disclosure on Online Social Networks

The highly interactive nature of interpersonal communication on online social networks (OSNs) impels us to think about privacy as a communal matter, with users' private information being revealed by not only their own voluntary disclosures, but also the activities of their social ties. The current privacy literature has identified two types of information disclosures in OSNs: self-disclosure, i.e., the disclosure of an OSN user's private information by him/herself; and co-disclosure, i.e., the disclosure of the user's private information by other users. Although co-disclosure has been increasingly identified as a new source of privacy threat inherent to the OSN context, few systematic attempts have been made to provide a framework for understanding the commonalities and distinctions between self- vs. co-disclosure, especially pertaining to different types of private information. To address this gap, this paper presents a data-driven study that builds upon an innovative measurement for quantifying the extent to which others' co-disclosure could lead to actual privacy harm. The results demonstrate the significant harm caused by co-disclosure and illustrate the differences between the identity elements revealed through self- and co-disclosure

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation highlights two important issues with regard to online privacy concerns in e-commerce: (1) why can't privacy concerns explain online behavior? and (2) what are the essential sources of privacy concerns in e-commerce? In Chapter 2, we explain the discrepancy between people's privacy concerns and their willingness to personal information to an online vender, which is called the online privacy paradox. Drawing on construal level theory (CLT), we suggest that people form privacy concerns in a general situation by construing benefits of information disclosure and privacy risk. Due to high psychological distance, the evaluations of benefits and privacy risk become abstract and superficial (i.e., high-level construal). However, as people traverse to a particular situation, the evaluations of those factors become more specific, due to decreased psychological distance (i.e., low-level construal). When high- and low-level construals are consistent, privacy concerns significantly affect information disclosure in a particular situation. In contrast, when the construals are inconsistent, privacy concerns can't explain information disclosure in a particular situation (i.e., privacy paradox). In Chapter 3, we attempt to identify essential antecedents of privacy concerns in ecommerce. Drawing on protection motivation theory, we select privacy risk, self-efficacy, and response efficacy as generic determinants of privacy concerns. We also identify notice and consent of information practice as privacy concerns' determinants specific to ecommerce. According to our results, while privacy risk and consent had direct effects on privacy concerns, self-efficacy and notice indirectly impact privacy concerns through privacy risk. In Chapter 4, we seek to explain the inconsistent direct and indirect effect of privacy concerns by examining attitudinal ambivalence. We develop two alternative models: direct ambivalence and indirect ambivalence model. The direct ambivalence model conceptualizes privacy concerns as attitude and assumes the direct effect of privacy concerns. The effect of privacy concerns is moderated by the ambivalence of privacy selfefficacy and privacy risk. On the other hand, indirect ambivalence model conceptualizes privacy concerns as individual characteristics and assumes indirect effect of privacy concerns via favorability of information disclosure. The relation between favorability and information disclosure is moderated by the ambivalence of benefits and privacy risk

Your Privacy Is Your Friend\u27s Privacy: Examining Interdependent Information Disclosure on Online Social Networks

The highly interactive nature of interpersonal communication on online social networks (OSNs) impels us to think about privacy as a communal matter, with users\u27 private information being revealed by not only their own voluntary disclosures, but also the activities of their social ties. The current privacy literature has identified two types of information disclosures in OSNs: self-disclosure, i.e., the disclosure of an OSN user\u27s private information by him/herself; and co-disclosure, i.e., the disclosure of the user\u27s private information by other users. Although co-disclosure has been increasingly identified as a new source of privacy threat inherent to the OSN context, few systematic attempts have been made to provide a framework for understanding the commonalities and distinctions between self- vs. co-disclosure, especially pertaining to different types of private information. To address this gap, this paper presents a data-driven study that builds upon an innovative measurement for quantifying the extent to which others\u27 co-disclosure could lead to actual privacy harm. The results demonstrate the significant harm caused by co-disclosure and illustrate the differences between the identity elements revealed through self- and co-disclosure

It Won\u27t Happen To Me! : Self-Disclosure in Online Social Networks

Despite the considerable amount of self-disclosure in Online Social Networks (OSN), the motivation behind this phenomenon is still little understood. Building on the Privacy Calculus theory, this study fills this gap by taking a closer look at the factors behind individual self-disclosure decisions. In a Structural Equation Model with 237 subjects we find Perceived Enjoyment and Privacy Concerns to be significant determinants of information revelation. We confirm that the privacy concerns of OSN users are primarily determined by the perceived likelihood of a privacy violation and much less by the expected damage. These insights provide a solid basis for OSN providers and policy-makers in their effort to ensure healthy disclosure levels that are based on objective rationale rather than subjective misconceptions

Examining Consumers’ Selective Information Privacy Disclosure Behaviors in an Organization’s Secure e-Commerce Systems

The study is an examination of the antecedents to the paradoxical changes in the consumers’ intended and actual personal information disclosure behaviors in online transactions or in e-commerce environments. The argument is that a consumer’s information privacy paradox is based on the consumer’s cognitive predisposition. The study adopted the conceptual underpinning inherent in the Privacy Regulation Theory (PRT) and translated them into information privacy context, as the consumer’s desired state of information privacy, information privacy self-interest, information privacy permeability, and information privacy equipoise constructs, to examine the causal relationship among the constructs and between a consumer’s selective personal information disclosure behavior variable. The theoretical model was advanced based on the conceptual framework in PRT and was validated using Structural Equation Modeling. In addition, the study conducted hypothesis testing and factor analysis using Confirmatory Factor Analysis in order to determine the existence of statistical significance and causality. The result indicates that the consumers’ willingness to transact online and disclose their personal information depend largely on the degree of their need signal (self-interest), and to some extent, their awareness and concern of the online merchant’s capacity to collect their personal information, irrespective of their previously declared or undeclared intent to transact and disclose personal information, or despite their desired natural state of information privacy. In other words, the existence of the information privacy paradox stems from the fact that a consumer’s intention to disclose personal information online depends on the person’s natural or desired state of information privacy, whereas the customer’s actual personal information disclosure behavior depends on his or her information privacy equipoise