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Facebook and Privacy

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Facebook and Privacy
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences
Bernhard Debatin, Jennette P. Lovejoy
E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University

Ann-Kathrin Horn, M.A.
Institut fur Kommunikationswissenschaft, Leipzig University (Germany) ¨

Brittany N. Hughes
Honors Tutorial College/E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University

This article investigates Facebook users’ awareness of privacy issues and perceived benefits and risks of utilizing Facebook. Research found that Facebook is deeply integrated in users’ daily lives through specific routines and rituals. Users claimed to understand privacy issues, yet reported uploading large amounts of personal information. Risks to privacy invasion were ascribed more to others than to the self. However, users reporting privacy invasion were more likely to change privacy settings than those merely hearing about others’ privacy invasions. Results suggest that this lax attitude may be based on a combination of high gratification, usage patterns, and a psychological mechanism similar to third-person effect. Safer use of social network services would thus require changes in user attitude. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01494.x

Introduction

Student life without Facebook is almost unthinkable. Since its inception in 2004, this popular social network service has quickly become both a basic tool for and a mirror of social interaction, personal identity, and network building among students. Social network sites deeply penetrate their users’ everyday life and, as pervasive technology, tend to become invisible once they are widely adopted, ubiquitous, and taken for granted (Luedtke, 2003, para 1). Pervasive technology often leads to unintended consequences, such as threats to privacy and changes in the relationship between public and private sphere. These issues have been studied with respect to a variety of Internet contexts and applications (Berkman & Shumway,


References: 104 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 15 (2009) 83–108 © 2009 International Communication Association Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 15 (2009) 83–108 © 2009 International Communication Association 105 106 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 15 (2009) 83–108 © 2009 International Communication Association Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 15 (2009) 83–108 © 2009 International Communication Association 107 Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 15 (2009) 83–108 © 2009 International Communication Association
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