Collective Privacy Management Practices: A Study of Privacy Strategies and Risks in a Private Facebook Group

Abstract

This paper qualitatively examines how members of a large private Facebook group view the risks of information disclosure to their privacy and the strategies they employ to navigate and manage those risks. The paper adds to an emerging interest in how privacy is managed collectively and within dynamic large groups, thus moving beyond established knowledge of privacy management on individual and small-scale levels. The work builds on semi-structured interviews with 20 members of a private Facebook group and draws on Communication Privacy Management theory. The study shows how privacy management practices are enacted at individual, intragroup, and group levels. Findings show that participants associate very high risks with sharing private information in the group, partly because it consists of a mix of known others and strangers, who are potentially geographically co-located. They adopt several strategies for managing and protecting their privacy at all three levels. The risks associated with context, time, and spatial collapse of the imagined audience are identified as important to how participants experience information disclosure in the group. The paper concludes by identifying some practical implications that serve as a call for developers to design privacy tools that support dynamic groups' privacy challenges and needs.

Perceived challenges affecting user engagement in online community: an analysis of interrelationships and interaction

“…2.2.3 Security issues. Fear and concern about the security of our most valued and vulnerable individuals have also been fostered by online communities (Mansour and Francke, 2021). Online criminals, such as identity thieves and stalkers, may use the groups as a hunting ground.…”

“…2.2.7 Legal threats. According to Massa (2017), anonymous evolved from a small gathering of contributors focused on entertainment to a network of trolls, activists and hackers incubating various initiatives (Millington, 2016;Mansour and Francke, 2021). The interaction of digital technology and a disruptive culture aided experimentation, culminating in the legal threats activists and hackers working on a variety of initiatives.…”

“…Online communities do cause risk, and users should proceed cautiously and consider that just because something is secure does not mean it is (Dubey et al, 2020;Horrigan, 2001). There are many cyber frauds, trolling and harassment, hazing, privacy, reliability of information and imbalance (Charles, 2006;Mansour and Francke, 2021). described that data created online includes text and photographs, videos, sensor data, emails and other types of information, making it complicated and challenging to store.…”

“…Online communities do cause risk, and users should proceed cautiously and consider that just because something is secure does not mean it is (Dubey et al ., 2020; Horrigan, 2001). There are many cyber frauds, trolling and harassment, hazing, privacy, reliability of information and imbalance (Charles, 2006; Mansour and Francke, 2021).…”

Understanding Teenage Perceptions and Configurations of Privacy on Instagram

“…Our work aims to add to this literature in two-fold. First, while there are many studies looking at the privacy management of adults (ages 18 and older) on social media [16,33,45,61,66,72], there has been less of a focus on teenagers (ages [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. This age group is particularly at risk for privacy violations on social media platforms such as being sent explicit content [5,49,68].…”