Privacy settings
Many social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook, have default privacy settings that leave users more prone to sharing personal information.
[11] This reveals a need for fine privacy settings that allow users more flexibility in their SNS sharing ability.
[14] Furthermore, SNS privacy policies have shown to be too complex for consumers to fully understand, leading to personal information being shared regardless of user awareness.
[13] In the sense of social media, voluntary servitude is how users expose their information to companies and perpetuate data collection and monetization.
[13] Romele et al. offers a possible explanation to voluntary servitude through the System Justification Theory.
[7] A possible explanation for this is the third-person effect, which is the belief that one has a less chance of a privacy invasion than someone else, thinking they are safer than others.
[4] In a study of Canadian teenage use of SNS, a majority of participants that claimed they had nothing to hide still utilized privacy settings such as blocking other users.
[7] However, Debatin et al. emphasizes that the criteria individuals use to decide who is a Facebook friend is typically relaxed, posing privacy risks for users.
[22] In May 2020, Facebook began implementing the option to give users to delete or archive past posts from a certain time or from certain people.
Romele et al. acknowledges that social media companies often play a significant role in perpetuating the voluntary servitude of users.
[23] A specific portion regarding the use of user personal data and third party involvement was found to be increasingly confusing.
[23] In addition to companies portraying their privacy protection as clear and beneficial for users, they also do not do anything to heighten awareness of constant data collection.
[24] Lin et al. revealed that both informational and territorial privacy are user concerns with SNS.
[24] This serves as a monetary motivation for companies to adjust their privacy settings to better support users.
[24] Cultural differences such as being in a collectivistic versus an individualistic society can influence the general privacy settings chosen by users.
[14] In a study that analyzed varying Twitter privacy behaviors across the globe, there appeared a cultural difference between countries.
According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions, individualism is a heavy focus on the person while collectivism is more based on group effort.
The results of this study show collectivistic cultural values support more permissiveness, as measured by sharing geographic location on a person's profile.
Users in collectivistic countries typically keep a smaller inner circle, which fosters a more intimate, trusting environment for sharing personal information.
[14] This study reveals how cultural values and access to Internet can affect a person's privacy settings.
[2] Facebook also encourages users to share information which shapes norms that influence behavior.
Privacy by design aims to limit the risks of information sharing while maintaining or possibly increasing the benefits.
[19] If default privacy settings were too strict and closed off, the functionality of social media apps could decrease.
[28] Sayin et al. created a Facebook simulation tool that showed users how a post's audience setting was going to affect comment owners and their privacy.
Another software, AID-S (Adaptive Inference Discovery Service) personalizes each user's privacy preferences since what is considered private information varies from each individual.
[29] Furthermore, a framework was created for smart home information processing that includes a two layer security that improves user privacy.
[30] TTMSB takes into account user privacy desires and conceals sensitive information during data transmission.
[31] Education and increasing intrinsic motivation can help alleviate the effect of these contributors, and in turn, the privacy paradox.
[31] Alongside the tasks, individuals also had to answer questions regarding privacy settings such as, "How can you stop your contacts from being used by apps?"
[31] A person's digital character had health that was determined by performance regarding the task and answering questions correctly.
