Start Date
11-8-2016
Description
Online privacy management research related to e-commerce mainly focuses on whether or not to disclose information. Online social networking (OSN) on the other hand, offers a broader set of privacy management strategies. However, how individuals use these OSN strategies has not yet been studied. We survey college students about a popular OSN website and four privacy management strategies: privacy setting use, limiting content disclosure, friend list variety ,and firend list size. We take an exploratory approach using cluster analysis that results in four clusters with varying combinations of privacy management strategies. The findings reveal intriguing differences among the combinations of privacy control strategies. Overall, the findings support the control portfolios approach of Kirsch. Further, we show that each cluster has unique motivations for continued OSN use. Implications for future research are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Lankton, Nancy; McKnight, D.; and Tripp, John, "Privacy Management Strategies: An Exploratory Cluster Analysis" (2016). AMCIS 2016 Proceedings. 5.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2016/ISSec/Presentations/5
Privacy Management Strategies: An Exploratory Cluster Analysis
Online privacy management research related to e-commerce mainly focuses on whether or not to disclose information. Online social networking (OSN) on the other hand, offers a broader set of privacy management strategies. However, how individuals use these OSN strategies has not yet been studied. We survey college students about a popular OSN website and four privacy management strategies: privacy setting use, limiting content disclosure, friend list variety ,and firend list size. We take an exploratory approach using cluster analysis that results in four clusters with varying combinations of privacy management strategies. The findings reveal intriguing differences among the combinations of privacy control strategies. Overall, the findings support the control portfolios approach of Kirsch. Further, we show that each cluster has unique motivations for continued OSN use. Implications for future research are discussed.