Managing privacy on social network sites: The influence of personality, motivation, trust, and experience

A survey of 275 college users of social network sites (SNS) in Hong Kong was conducted to examine the influence of personality, motivation, trust, and Internet use experience on their privacy preferences. Results suggest that extraverts and those individuals who are motivated by social interactions would be more likely to share personal information on SNS; whereas experienced Internet users and individuals who use SNS mainly for fun would guard their profile more strictly. Findings from this study supports the view that privacy protection on social networking sites should be viewed as a dialectical tension between a desire to share and the need to conceal personal information. The study also points to the importance of considering social, contextual, as well as psychological factors in online privacy research.