Web Social Media Privacy Preferences and Perception
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Abstract
The proliferation of social media websites has led to concerns over privacy breaches, as these sites have access to users' sensitive and personal data. This study sought to investigate users' perceptions and concerns for social media websites, with the aim of developing a system that meets their requirements. To achieve this, a questionnaire was designed for privacy permissions on eight popular social media websites, and 425 completed answers were analyzed. The results revealed that users' concerns were diverse and differed across different social media platforms. Gender, age, education level, and IT proficiency were found to be weakly correlated with privacy concerns. Women expressed greater concerns than men, particularly for Twitter and Snapchat, while older users expressed greater levels of concern for Snapchat and Instagram. As education levels increased, users tended to express greater levels of concern, especially on WhatsApp and Snapchat.
Furthermore, this study identified four hierarchical clusters of users based on their preferences and concerns regarding permission privacy for social media websites. The results revealed that the majority of participants (214 users) were highly concerned about privacy on social media, indicating that they were aware of the potential risks associated with sharing personal information online which represents the third cluster. The first and fourth clusters were the most unconcerned groups regarding permission privacy, consisting of a small number of users. The second cluster, comprising 124 participants, had an average score of 1.6, indicating that they were the second most concerned about privacy. Overall, the findings of this study could be useful for social media platforms in developing privacy policies and settings that align with users' concerns and preferences.
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