Do I stay or do I go? As Facebook pushes people to share more they face a tough decision.

by Amy Muise and Emily Christofides           photo: Franco Boulay

With the constant stream of news about Facebook privacy changes, how's a privacy researcher to keep up? Recently, Facebook has come under fire for making changes to their privacy settings that are confusing to follow and make people share more than they might choose to. May 31st has become a day of protest, with people vowing to leave Facebook permanently as a result of recent changes that leave them with little choice over how much information to share. Facebook has made a number of mistakes in its life, but this latest round of changes is making people feel that Facebook is a friend they can no longer trust. With five hundred million users currently, how many defectors would it take for Facebook to listen?

The way that Facebook has behaved so far, they seem to believe that people don't value their privacy. And, you may think this is true given how much information people share on Facebook. But a closer look at their behavior reveals that people do care very much about privacy, they just want the best of both worlds. In our research (published in the journal CyberPsychology and Behavior), we found that people did share a lot of information, but they also wanted to control with whom they shared it. Sharing was an important way to connect with other people and to give them a chance to participate in the creation of their online identity, an identity that is made up of pictures, posts, and friends' responses to these things. What this means is that who you are on Facebook is a product of what you share and what others share about you.

Our more recent research shows that people are more likely to use Facebook's privacy settings if they are more aware of the consequences of sharing, and recently the news has been full of negative consequences - things like being passed over for a job, losing legal battles, creating jealousy and relationship conflict. Also, while in our research women had more friends, used Facebook more than men, and felt that Facebook was more important for letting others know about their actions and feelings, women were also more likely to use the privacy settings. This helps support the idea that people want to share with the people they want to, but also want to be able to control with whom they share. Just as people are starting to understand more about the consequences of sharing on Facebook, it has made a series of changes that give people less and less control over who they share with. And control, is one of the things that is so important to people.

All of this sharing has a limit and people may have reached it. People have a love hate relationship with Facebook, but so far they haven't been able to break up this liaison. When all of your friends are on Facebook (and most probably are - Facebook is often touted as the world's third largest country), what happens when you move away for good? So far not many people have wanted to risk finding out, but perhaps privacy has finally become a deal breaker.

Amy Muise and Emily Christofides are both doctoral candidates at the University of Guelph in Ontario, and have done a number of research studies on the way that people use Facebook and its impact on their relationships.

Muise researches interpersonal relationships, especially those mediated by technology, and Christofides researches the social effects of new media and people's perceptions of privacy.

for more information on privacy: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/