Exploring Social Media Privacy Concerns: A Comprehensive Survey Study Across 16 Middle Eastern and North African Countries

Abstract

The wide use of social media raises numerous privacy concerns, with limited studies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This study presents an in-depth analysis of social media privacy concerns in sixteen MENA countries, a timely and important topic in an under-studied region. A census-representative sample (N = 8140) was collected using an online panel survey from Algeria (n = 551), Bahrain (n = 453), Egypt (n = 522), Iraq (n = 526), Jordan (n = 580), Kuwait (n = 459), Lebanon (n = 485), Libya (n = 486), Morocco (n = 530), Oman (n = 471), Palestine (n = 486), Qatar (n = 489), Saudi Arabia (n = 521), Tunisia (n = 574), United Arab Emirates (n = 479), and Yemen (n = 528). Results show multi-level privacy differences in the Gulf, Levant, and North Africa regions, among countries in a region, and within a country based on gender, age, educational level, and resident status (expat vs. national). Results show the concerns and attitudes towards social media privacy in the MENA region, identifying factors contributing to these perceptions with implications for developing platforms and policies to address the unique privacy concerns of social media users in the MENA region.