The Privacy Paradox

How social networks are changing our notion of privacy

“People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.” — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

There was a time when many people didn’t feeling comfortable talking about politics or revealing their age and religion except to close friends and family.

But today, Facebook users voluntarily post that and other personal information online for an increasing number of people to see.

“Fundamentally, what we think of private has changed,” said Sarah Feldner, assistant professor in Marquette University’s Diederich College of Communication.

Even among young users who say they are highly concerned with privacy, greater information sharing is becoming a social norm, as Feldner and colleague Scott D’Urso found. They call this “the privacy paradox” among students who use Facebook.

“They may say ‘I’m highly concerned with privacy, and yet their birth date, residence hall, and hometown may all be posted on Facebook,” D’Urso said. “It’s an interesting pattern that emerges.”

Feldner and D’Urso felt that the sheer number of people engaged with this social network point to the critical nature of research focusing on Facebook. They surveyed 642 undergraduate students, who revealed that they have a strong concern for privacy with regards to their personal information and activities online, but at the same time were willing to give up more information to be a more connected member of the online world.

Despite changes in personal privacy controls on Facebook, students are allowing personal information to be seen by “friends,” D’Urso and Feldner found. But the average student has more than 400 friends on Facebook — many of whom users don’t know very well outside of the online arena.

“The term friend has really changed in the past five years,” D’Urso said. “A friend to me in high school or college today means really different things, especially in an online context. Students make a clear distinction between a real friend and a Facebook friend, but the online platform does not.”

So what is motivating this increased social sharing with a widening audience? One possible explanation may be offered in the way the Facebook changes the dynamics of a relationship. The site can often be used to learn more about people they meet offline, rather than to start new online.

This information exchange can be a kind of currency, Feldner and D’Urso say. They relate this phenomenon to the concept of relationship reciprocity, and in this case people are giving information in order to start the relationship process. Users appear to be willing to exchange their own privacy in order to interact with or learn about others.

“If you want to have friendships on Facebook, you need to part with some of your information to make it worthwhile for someone to friend you,” D’Urso said. “The more information you share in some ways, the more interesting you might appear to other users.”

As social networking continues to grow, the professors see an increased need to continue studying the changing nature of informational disclosure and privacy. They say they have only scratched the surface of this issue.

This article originally appeared in Marquette University’s Discover Magazine. For more research visit http://marquette.edu/research/