Predicting Users’ Privacy Boundary Management Strategies on Facebook

Our study attempted to apply CPM theory (Petronio, 2002) into Facebook scenario to examine how Facebook users regulate their privacy boundaries on Facebook and the factors that would affect Facebook users’ boundary management strategies. We proposed that Facebook users regulated their privacy boundaries on Facebook by two sets of Facebook privacy boundary management strategies—privacy setting control as privacy rule foundation management strategies and self-disclosure control as privacy dynamic management strategies. And we examined the impacts of factors on different strategies, like preferences for Facebook activities (social interaction, social observation and entertainment) and other individual difference factors like demographics, some personalities and psychological factors. Hypotheses were partially supported. Facebook users who prefer for different kinds of Facebook activities would adopt different kinds of privacy boundary management strategies. And demographic factors like gender, personalities like big-five and self-esteem, and psychological factors like public self-awareness also showed significant impacts on privacy boundary management strategies on Facebook.