Naïve Information Disclosers or Aware Readers?
Universität Hohenheim
Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
Fachgebiet Kommunikationswissenschaft
Different Ways of Using
und Sozialforschung (540A)
Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Schenk
Monika Taddicken Peter Miltner
Alice Hohn
Background: Methodology: General Results:
• • • 98.5% know studiVZ, only 1.5% don„t..
Social Networking Sites (SNS) allow individuals to present themselves, articulate their social Online survey between July 9th, 2008 and August 7th, 2008.
networks, and maintain or establish connections with others (Ellison, Steinfield, Lampe
• •
Target population: students of the University of Hohenheim. 91.2% of those who know studiVZ have an account, 4.4% had one, but have
2007).
deleted it,
• Recruiting via mailing lists of the University of Hohenheim.
• studiVZ is Europe„s largest SNS for students. Today, there are about 10 million users of 4.4% have never had an account.
• Incentives: lottery with 8 x 25 € book vouchers.
studiVZ. It is one of the ten most visited websites in Germany (alexa.com).
• 8 participants even have two or three accounts. Reasons for this are ‚Fun„,
• Data cleansing left 394 data sets for analysis.
• Since 2007, schülerVZ is online which is the spin-off of studiVZ for pupils. In ‚to see my profile the way my friends see it„, ‚for surfing studiVZ anonymously„.
• On average, participants needed about 9 minutes to complete the survey.
2008, meinVZ, a SNS for grown-ups, went online.
• 84.0% of those who know studiVZ like it or like it very much, 12.4% don„t
• As in other SNS, every user of studiVZ maintains a profile containing personal information like it or don„t like it at all. Missings = no opinion.
Sample:
like name, birthday, study subjects, favourites, etc. Members are often organized in groups
within studiVZ. Additionally, studiVZ provides a private messaging service. Thus, studiVZ • Sex: female: 71.6%, male: 28.4%
offers a variety of features which members can use – or not. Naturally, such a large network • Age: 19-23 years: 47.5%, 24-28 years: 47.2%, 29-35 years: 4,3%
includes different types of members with different levels of activity and participation.
• Terms: 1.-4. term: 40.2%, 5.-8. term: 36.8%, 9.-12. term: 21.4%, higher: 1.6%
• In addition, studiVZ has an elaborate system of privacy settings. Users have control over the • Faculty: Agricultural Sciences: 53.3%, Natural Sciences: 3.8%, Business,
extent to which friends and strangers can access different parts of their profile and monitor
Economics and Social Sciences: 41.9%
their online activity.
Level of Awareness
• As the issue of privacy gets more and more subject of public attention, but there are still few
empirical studies about the privacy practises of SNS users, the aim of this study is to give
This dimension describes how aware a user is regarding the usage of
some details about studiVZ users regarding their level of activitiy, self-disclosure and
personal profile-data and possible data abuse. The awareness was
awareness about data abuse.
measured using thirteen items. Every user who expressed his/her consent
for seven or more items was considered as aware; e.g. concerning the
fourth item, 43.6% of as aware declared users agreed that some users
harass others via studiVZ whereas almost all unaware users disapproved.
This implies a difference of 38.2 percentage points between these two
types of users regarding this item.
In total, 54.2% of the participants were rated as aware users and 45.8% as
unaware users.
98.2%
Proportions of 100.0%
aware and
Level of Activity 91.8% 91.8%
90.8%
unaware 90.0%
84.4%
84.0%
users 82.2%
80.0%
The level of activity describes how active a user is engaged in studiVZ. This 71.7%
70.2%
involvement was measured in terms of time and social activity using seven items. 70.0% 65.9%
63.0% Aware Users (n=191-192)
Every user who scored in four or more items beyond the particular threshold was 60.0%
Unaware Users (n=160-162)
53.3% 52.1%
considered as active; e.g. 96.5% of as active declared users exceeded the 48.5%
50.0%
43.6%
threshold, meaning they are members of six groups or more. That is to say they 40.2% 39.7%
40.0% 36.1%
have a high level of activity compared to passive users.
30.0%
23.7%
In total, 63.0% of the participants were rated as active users and 37.0% as passive 20.1%
18.3%
20.0%
users. 14.3%
10.7%
10.0% 5.4% 4.8%
Proportions of 100.0% 2.4%
96.5% 96.3%
active and 0.0% Items with consent as threshold
91.5%
passive users
Some human resources departments keep fake-accounts.
Personal data can be read along by hackers.
Some users spy intentionally on other users.
Some users stalk other users also in real life.
Users of studiVZ are targeted individually according to their profile
There are technical possibilities to readout profiles from the
The advertising industry uses studiVZ-profile data in order to adapt
Some users fill in unreal/ false personal data.
The operators of studiVZ divulge/ pass on user data to the
The readout of profile data has already occurred.
Some users harass others via studiVZ.
The operators explicitly exclude the transfer of profile data.
Some users made up their complete profile.
90.0%
users with a low level of
‚
database of studiVZ. (Cross-Site Scripting)
awareness don't feel
threatened by
their products better to the target group.
80.0%
hackers, stalkers and
74.3%
advertising industry.*
70.8%
data with commercials.
harassers
70.0%
60.3%
60.0% 57.0%
55.4%
51.9%
50.0%
Active Users (n=222-223)
Passive Users (n=129-131)
40.0%
29.6%
30.0%
24.4%
Exception: * Here disapproval instead of consent for scoring necessary
20.0%
(Number of Items: 13; Level 13-7 → Aware User; Level 6-0 → Unaware User)
13.0%
10.0%
3.8% 3.8%
Items and
0.0%
corresponding
member of 6 log-in 2-5 times 51 friends or tagging 1 photo album 11-20 minutes \"what are you
thresholds
groups or more a week or more more or more or longer doing right
often now?\"
(Number of Items: 7; Level 7-4 → Active User; Level 3-0 → Passive User)
Level of Level of Awareness about the usage of data/
Level of Activity
active vs. passive users:
Disclosure data abuse
big difference concerning
tagging, photo albums and
group-memberships.
Unaware User Aware User
Naïve Information Aware Information
Discloser Discloser Discloser
24.6% 28.2%
Active User
Level of Disclosure Intuitive Information Aware Information
Non-Discloser Minimalist Minimalist
The level of disclosure describes to what extend a user reveals real personal
details in his/her studiVZ-profile. It was measured using twelve items. Every
4.5% 5.6%
user who scored in four or more items beyond the particular threshold was
considered a discloser.
The figure shows that 90.2% of the disclosers reveal their real date of
birth, whereas just 41.6% of the non-disclosers do so.
Discloser Naïve Visitor Disclosing Visitor
In total, 74.9% of the participants were rated as disclosers and only 25.1% as
non-disclosers.
11.3% 10.7%
Passive User
Proportions of 100.0%
disclosers
90.2% 89.8%
and non- 90.0%
disclosers
Non-Discloser Naïve Reader Aware Reader
80.0%
73.6%
5.4% 9.6%
67.9%
70.0%
64.0%
60.0%
60.0%
52.5%
49.1%
50.0%
45.7%
Discloser (n=23-265)
42.6%
41.6%
Non-Discloser (n=12-89)
40.0% 36.0%
30.0%
25.8%
Further Results:
20.0%
12.4% 12.4%
11.2%
9.8% 9.1%
At the end of the year 2007, studiVZ changed its terms and
8.7%
In February 2008, the owners of studiVZ started a
10.0% 6.7%
5.6%
conditions. The users had to accept those within a certain new community for grownups named meinVZ. The
0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Items with consent as
0.0%
time or leave the community. As a consequence half of the SNS are connected so that establishing friendships is
threshold
Real nicknames for Skype, etc.
Real name
Real relationship status
Real favorite books etc.
Real URL of own homepage
Real job description
Real specifications on courses
Real address
Real telephone numbers
Real date of birth
Profile photo (identifiable)
Profile publicly visible
members who decided to stay modified their profile: possible. Most of the respondents know already
meinVZ and are connected to it. The majority of users
can imagine to “move” to meinVZ when having
100.0%
90.0%
completed their studies.
80.0%
70.0%
55.3%
60.0%
100.0%
46.5%
45.2%
50.0%
90.0%
(Number of Items: 12; Level 12-4 → Non-Discloser; Level 3-0 → Discloser) 84.1%
40.0%
27.2% 26.4% 75.5%
80.0%
30.0% 22.6%
20.0% 70.0%
10.7%
10.0% 58.1%
60.0%
0.0%
if additional information 50.0%
deletion of photo albums
leaving of groups
profile photo
New terms and conditions: change of
changed personal data
reduced visibility for others
change of other details given
(favourite books, etc.) is 40.0%
given it is usually true. No 30.0%
one bothers to make up 20.0%
profile
this kind of information.
10.0%
0.0%
I know the new I'm already connected to I can imagine being
community meinvz meinvz member of meinvz after
studivz