title: Couldn't or wouldn't? The influence of privacy concerns and self-efficacy in privacy management on privacy protection.
abstract: Sampling 515 college students, this study investigates how privacy protection, including profile visibility, self-disclosure, and friending, are influenced by privacy concerns and efficacy regarding one's own ability to manage privacy settings, a factor that researchers have yet to give a great deal of attention to in the context of social networking sites (SNSs). The results of this study indicate an inconsistency in adopting strategies to protect privacy, a disconnect from limiting profile visibility and friending to self-disclosure. More specifically, privacy concerns lead SNS users to limit their profile visibility and discourage them from expanding their network. However, they do not constrain self-disclosure. Similarly, while self-efficacy in privacy management encourages SNS users to limit their profile visibility, it facilitates self-disclosure. This suggests that if users are limiting their profile visibility and constraining their friending behaviors, it does not necessarily mean they will reduce self-disclosure on SNSs because these behaviors are predicted by different factors. In addition, the study finds an interaction effect between privacy concerns and self-efficacy in privacy management on friending. It points to the potential problem of increased risk-taking behaviors resulting from high self-efficacy in privacy management and low privacy concerns.
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong , Shatin, Hong Kong .
authors.forename: Hsuan-Ting
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Wenghong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D018907:Privacy / Q000523:psychology*; D012650:Self Disclosure; D020377:Self Efficacy; D060756:Social Networking; D055815:Young Adult