Abstract

Online social networks (OSN) have become a widespread phenomenon used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. OSNs such as Facebook are used to, for example, tell friends one’s personal expe-riences, and users report merits such as enjoyment and establishing social relationships. However, violation of the user’s privacy by OSNs is considered by many to be a major problem. As a response to this OSNs have implemented features that support users in controlling their privacy. What is still un-clear is if such privacy controls influence online disclosure behavior by users of OSNs. While previous research has focused on the relation between privacy concern and online disclosure or between priva-cy concern and privacy control use, existing research on the relation between privacy control use and online disclosure remains inconclusive. The current study aims to fill this gap using a research model that includes relations between privacy concern, knowledge about privacy controls, use of privacy controls and online disclosure. We present an online survey to collect data among Facebook users. Structural equation modelling is then proposed to test our hypotheses. With our research we aim to provide more insight in the possible role of use of privacy controls in online disclosure behavior.

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