Disclosure Management on Social Network Sites

What is it about?

The social web and specifically social network sites (SNS) have offered new opportunities for interaction and communication, but have also increased the risk of privacy violations. In this empirical study, we show that SNS-users engage in what we term "disclosure management" in order to safeguard their privacy online. Particularly in public communication channels, they relinquish only information that deem as non-sensitive and less private.

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Why is it important?

Prior research on privacy in social media has often claimed that people behave paradoxically: They disclose a lot about themselves although they are concerned about their privacy. Against this backdrop, this work shows that people do actively regulate their privacy by engaging in disclosure management.