Knowledge SPA IBS Seminar Series

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES – USERS’ AWARENESS OF PRIVACY MEASURES,

PRIVACY FEATURES USE AND INFORMATION PRIVACY CONCERN

Norshidah Mohamed1

Ili Hawa Ahmad2

norshidah@ic.utm.myhttp://www.ibs.utm.myiIli_hawa@yahoo.com

1 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

2 INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

Knowledge SPA IBS Seminar Series

8 Feb. 2012

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

• Overview

• Introduction

• Research questions

• Review of literature

• Gaps in the literature

• Methodology

• Findings

• Conclusions & limitation

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Revealing Bank Account on Social Networking Sites

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/6/30/nation/8996725&sec=nation (accessed on 12 Dec, 2011)

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Recognise the threats in Social Networking Sites and protect our information privacy!

http://techcentral.my/columns/industryviews/story.aspx?file=/2010/7/21/it_col_industryviews/20100721153614&sec=it_

col_industryviews (accessed on 12 Dec 2011)

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INTRODUCTION

1. Social Networking Sites (SNS) are simple

Websites that allow users to create personal

profiles, list friends and browse through their

friends’ list (Aquisti and Gross, 2006). Emerge

out of Web 2.0 phenomenon.

2. Examples - Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Twitter etc.

3. Youths are the biggest SNS community

(ECAR Research Study, 2008).

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INTRODUCTION ..CONT’

4. Facebook is the most popular SNS (ECAR Research Study, 2008).

5. In December 2010, Facebook has more that 500 million active users worldwide (retrieved from Facebook Webpage, 2010). Malaysia has the most Facebook users in Southeast Asia (The Star, 2010).

6. Facebook is the most popular visited Website in November 2010 as reported in Malaysian Digital Association (MDA).

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RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. Is there a relationship between users’ awareness of privacy measures and privacy features use in SNS?

2. Is there a significant difference in users’ information privacy concern with SNS between those who use privacy features in SNS and those who do not?

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE1. Articles published between May 2010 and

July 2010 on SNS suggest privacy issue dominates the discussion.

2. Privacy is defined as “the right to be left alone”(Warren and Brandeis,1890).

3. Information privacy – ‘‘the ability of the individual to personally control information about one’s self’’ (Smith et al., 2009) .

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE

..CONT’4. Personal information privacy is individual’s

ability to personally control his/her information that includes birth registration details, income, expenditure patterns, health records etc. (Lim et al. 2009).

5. Younger respondents are likely to reveal their personal information through SNS (ECAR Research, 2008).

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE

..CONT’

• Information privacy concerns refer to “the extent to which an individual is concerned about organisational practices related to the collection and use of his or her personal information” (Udo, 2011).

• Privacy features are “technical implementation of privacy controls on Websites that enable user friendly profile control and set-up to encourage safe participation”(Tuunainen et al. 2009).

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GAPS IN THE

LITERATURE

• Not many prior studies linkedinformation privacy concern to SNS

• A lack of studies on SNS in theMalaysian contexts although Malaysiahas the most Facebook users in S.E.A.

• Many prior studies had examinedinformation privacy concern in electroniccommerce environment – only in the lasttwo years SNS began to receive greaterattention

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METHODOLOGY

Cross-sectional survey research.

Target respondents - undergraduate students from four Kulliyyahs in IIUM i.e. KICT, KIRKHS, KENMS and KENG in the IIUM.

Cluster sampling technique. Selection of elements based on class schedule of a particular semester.

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METHODOLOGY .. CONT’

A total of 413 questionnaires were distributed. A total number of 345 respondents returned the questionnaires and 340 were used for analysis.

SPSS Version 16 used for data analysis.

Data analysis used in this research:

• Descriptive analysis

• Cross-tabulation - chi-square test

• Independent samples t-test

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FINDINGS1. The first research question: Is there a relationship

between users’ awareness of privacy measures and privacy features use in SNS?

TABLE 1: AWARENESS OF PRIVACY MEASURES

TABLE 2: USE OF PRIVACY FEATURES IN SNS

Aware? Frequency Percentage

No 26 7.6

Yes 314 92.4

Privacy features

use?

Frequency Percentage

No 36 10.6

Yes 304 89.4

Observation: There is a majority of users who are aware of privacy measures

Observation: There is a majority of users who use privacy features in SNS.

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FINDINGS ..CONT’

TABLE 3: PRIVACY MEASURES AWARENESS AND USE CONTINGENCY TABLE

TABLE 4. PRIVACY MEASURES AWARENESS AND USE CHI-SQUARE TEST

Value df

Asymp. Sig.

(2-sided)

Exact Sig.

(2-sided)

Exact Sig.

(1-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 77.196a 1 .000

Continuity

Correctionb 71.479 1 .000

Likelihood Ratio 46.226 1 .000

Fisher's Exact Test .000 .000

Linear-by-Linear

Association76.969 1 .000

N of Valid Casesb 340

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FINDINGS .. CONT’

TABLE 5: PRIVACY MEASURES AWARENESS AND USE PHI (φφφφ) TEST

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FINDINGS ..CONT’

1. Is there a relationship between users’ awareness of privacy measures and privacy features use in SNS?

Users who were aware of the existence ofprivacy measures in SNS would use theprivacy features to protect their privacy.

X2(1, N=340) = 77.196; p<0.05

Phi (φφφφ) test value (Table 5) is 0.476(p<0.05).

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FINDINGS .. CONT’

2. The second research question: Is there a significant difference in users’ information privacy concern between those who use privacy setting measures in SNS and those who do not?

TABLE 6: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS INFORMATION PRIVACY CONCERN MEASURES

Information Privacy Concern Items 1 2 3 4 5

I am concerned about submitting my personal information in

SNS because of what others might do with it.

2

0.6%

10

2.9%

69

20.3%

87

25.6%

172

50.6%

I am concerned about submitting my personal information in

SNS because it could be used in a way I did not foresee.

3

0.9%

6

1.8%

64

18.8%

103

30.3%

164

48.2%

When I am online through SNS, I have the feeling of being

watched.

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2.1%

35

10.3%

115

33.8%

122

35.9

61

17.9%

When I am online through SNS, I have the feeling that all

my clicks and actions are being tracked and monitored.

2

0.6%

37

10.9%

110

32. 4%

109

32.1%

81

23.8%

1: Strongly Disagree 5: Strongly agree

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FINDINGS .. CONT’

TABLE 7: INDEPENDENT SAMPLES T-TEST

2. The second research question: Is there a significant difference in users’ information privacy concern between those who use privacy features in SNS and those who do not?

There is a significant difference in information privacyconcern between those who used privacy features andthose who did not use it in SNS. Users who were moreconcerned with information privacy would use the privacyfeatures in SNS.

Use

privacy

features

N Mean

IPC

Std

Dev

S.E

mean

t- value df Sig. 2-

tailed

No 35 3.59 0.62 0.10 -2.93 337 .004

Yes 304 3.97 0.73 0.04

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CONCLUSIONS &

LIMITATIONS

1. In terms of theory, the research hascontributed to knowledge on theimportance of creating awareness amongSNS users in privacy measures and, useof privacy features in SNS. Withawareness, users will be more concernedabout their information privacy concernand take the necessary actions to protectit.

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CONCLUSIONS &

LIMITATIONS .. CONT’

2. In terms of practice, computingeducational programs including basicinformation technology courses need toincorporate issues of privacy in SNS in itscurricula and means to mitigate risks oflosing information privacy through properuser control. Lab curriculum design mayinclude practical aspects like theapplication of SNS privacy features.

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• The research used cross-sectional approach. It did not capture temporal aspect.

• Further, as only undergraduates from a particular university participated in the research, the findings may not be generalised in the context of the entire social networking sites users and thus may have to be carefully interpreted.

CONCLUSIONS &

LIMITATIONS .. CONT’

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• Future research may consider longitudinal approach and other demographic segment of social networking sites users (school children, business operators etc.) as research participants.

CONCLUSIONS &

LIMITATIONS .. CONT’