Information disclosure and attitude towards privacy on Facebook among undergraduates: A survey at the Eastern University, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Users of Facebook has been increasing exponentially in the last two decades, allowing millions of people to expose their profiles to the public and with no or little privacy for individuals. Facebook, in today's context has created a concern regarding privacy of its users and the consequences of information disclosure. Based on current reports regarding negative consequences of disclosure of information on social network sites, students seem to be unconcerned about the potential negative impacts of the same. The objectives of the study are to analyze the pattern of information disclosure on Facebook, examine the relationship between information disclosure and gender, determine the methods used for making friends on Facebook and its association with gender and, measure the attitudes towards privacy on social networking sites. A quantitative research approach was employed using a self-administrated questionnaire to gather responses from undergraduates of the Eastern University, Sri Lanka. The results revealed that the majority of undergraduates disclose their real name (82.3%), hometown (63.2%), e-mail address (60.53%) and, education (62.13%), and rarely share the relationship status (32%). Education is the highest criteria which both gender use to select friends (Male-56.12% & Female-55.89%). Moreover, the results revealed that females seldom share this information than males (p<0.05).  Further, there was a tendency, to share different information with different groups of people which was statistically significant. The favourite, events, and location are associated with friends, while location and opinions are associated with the public. However, political views, and photos are appearing towards not sharing category. Relatively 41.1% of respondents were satisfied with the privacy setting of SNS. It gives evidence that privacy settings are still neglected, and it stresses the need for awareness programmes on privacy concerns on SNS for undergraduates.