Boundary Regulation
in Social Media

(Lenhart 2009)

Context
Privacy
Disclosure
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Managing Contexts
• Friendster
• “Burners, gay men
and bloggers”
• Myspace
• Teens and mirror
profiles
(boyd, 2006 & 2007) http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxgrrl/3676857198/
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Managing Contexts
• Presence of multiple
social groups
• Behavioral
Strategies
• Mental Strategies
• “Least Common http://bit.ly/yS8yI
Denominator”
(Lampinen et. al., 2009)
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Context Tension
• Connections across
status and power
boundaries
• Propriety, work/
family
• Inadvertent
disclosures leading
to harms
http://bit.ly/6HTDB
(Skeels and Grudin, 2009)
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Conceptions of Privacy
• Privacy as selective control (Altman,
1975)
• Privacy as information practice
(Dourish & Anderson, 2006)
• Privacy as boundary management
(Petronio, 2002)
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

CPM
• Communications
Privacy Management
• Rule Development
• Boundary
Coordination
• Boundary
Turbulence
(Petronio, 2002)
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Study Goals
• Why are motives for using multiple
profiles?
• What strategies to people employ in
managing multiple profiles?
• Is this an effective strategy?
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Method
• Criteria: multiple profiles on one
social media site
• Twenty in-depth interviews, Summer
2009
• In-person/phone/Skype
• Analyzed using grounded theory
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Respondents
• Six in their 20’s, Seven
in their 30’s, Six in their
40’s, and one was 57
• Twelve females, eight
males
• Respondents from US
(NC, VA, GA, CA, FL)
and UK
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Motives
• Privacy
• Identity
• Utility
• Propriety
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gi/435888435/
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Privacy
• Control of access to the self;
withdrawal from public domain
• Safety
• Confidentiality
“I know some young kids who tweeted ‘I’m
going to lunch at so and so’ and they came
back to their apartment and they had been
robbed...”
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Privacy
• For many respondents, multiple
profiles:
• Functioned as shield, protecting
identifiable information
• Enabled content production
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Identity
• Multiple profiles allowed for
establishment of distinct identities
(personal/professional)
[Created second Facebook profile so] “I
could be all about business” [On personal
profile] “could be a place where I have
opinions, where I express personal stuff.”
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Utility
• Multiple profiles enable:
• Accomplishment of promotional and
collaborative goals
• Catering to specific audiences at
specific times
• Not having to apologize for off-topic
posts
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Utility
• Segment volume of disclosure
• Offer differing information streams
(topic/interest)
“If somebody on my personal Twitter says
‘oh gosh you are inundating me with too
many updates,’ I will tell them that they can
follow my public profile that I update
substantially less”
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Propriety
• Multiple profiles used to manage
conformity to norms and customs
• Befriending the boss or parent
[On the personal profile] “when my boss
pops up and Facebook tells me ‘we think
you should be friends,’ I don’t say yes
because she’s my boss.”
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Forms of Regulation
• Multiple identities in a
single space
• Single account, highly
segmented privacy controls
• Segmentation by site
• Different social media for
different audiences
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Axes of Regulation
• Regulation by
linkage
• Regulation by
concealment
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thosch66/270060125/
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Linkages
• Links to the identity
"I have two different identities, I have a
personal one. [and] one geared towards my
professional stuff, there's not much
personal information there. But, I do have a
separate Flickr account, I have separate
Twitter accounts, I have separate Myspace
pages”
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Linkages
• Regulation by linked interconnections
“But I don’t try and hide the fact that I’m
one or the other. You know in my [personal]
bio, I say something about [my business
twitter]. So its not like I’m trying to hide my
two different identities.”
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Concealment
• Three genres identified
• Pseudonymity
• Practical Obscurity
• Obscure name variants, non-
disclosure of identity
• Transparent Separations
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Concealment
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Evaluation
• Do these techniques provide privacy?
“The thing going into it is I don’t put
anything out there that I wouldn’t want
everybody to know”
“I have to be careful about - that I say
something that's generic enough”
“I’m very conscious of the fact I am
basically speaking to an open mic”
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Evaluation
• Is the process burdensome?
• High burden: Number of accounts
maintained, large number of
contacts
• High burden: Degree of linkage
disassociation
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Evaluation
• Technical strategies
• Most participants reported
“bleedover”
• Segmenting by device
• Segmenting by time and location
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Implications
• Multiple profile maintenance
consistent with the theoretical
provisions of Altman and Petronio
• Process reduces potential harms, and
encourages disclosures
• Represents a reaction to limitations
inherent in sites
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Thank you!
Fred Stutzman:
fred.stutzman@unc.edu
@fstutzman
http://fredstutzman.com
Woodrow Hartzog
whartzog@email.unc.edu
@hartzog
http://ssrn.com/author=1107005
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Axis of Linkages
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Pseudonymity
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Practical Obscurity
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu

Transparent Separations
Fred Stutzman, fred.stutzman@unc.edu