The role of demographics and Facebook activities in users' concerns about online privacy

Abstract

Online social networking sites, such as Facebook, have become an integral part of society –mainly due to a need for social engagement. Unfortunately, cyber-related crimes have increased owing to individuals displaying their personal information so freely online. The reported inconsistencies in terms of the associations of different users and user activities in terms of their levels of online privacy served as an impetus for this study. Against the backdrop of the uses and gratifications theory and the reported inconsistencies from previous studies, the purpose of this study is to investigate how certain socio-demographic variables and activities of Facebook users are associated with concerns about information privacy on Facebook. Data was collected through 210 selfadministered questionnaires. Results suggest that females are less likely than males to provide accurate personal information on Facebook. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between internet experience and a Facebook user’s privacy concerns. The value of this study lies in understanding the balance between privacy concern and sharing personal information, as well as to assist Facebook practitioners in terms of dealing with the issue of privacy for different Facebook users. Privacy concerns also have an impact on a user’s likelihood of implementing advanced privacy settings, and the results from this study may be able to assist Facebook practitioners to minimise the negative consequences of future Facebook interactions.