Disclosure, Privacy and Social Capital

A study by Jones & Soltren (2005) (as cited in Debatin, et. al, 2009) revealed that 74 % of the
users knew about the privacy options in Facebook, but only 62 % actually used these options.
Surprisingly, despite the awareness of privacy threats, users tended to post large amounts of
personal information. Jones & Soltren (2005) (as cited in Debatin, et. al, 2009) found that over
70 disclosed demographic data, such as age, gender, location, and their interests. As many as
89% users reported that they did not read the privacy policy and 91 % did not know about the
terms of service. This callous attitude towards Facebooks privacy policies and terms of service
was found to be widespread (Acquisti & Gross, 2006; Govani & Pashley, 2005; Gross &
Acquisti, 2005) (as cited in Debatin, et. al, 2009).
Debatin et.al (2009) conducted an online survey of a convenient sample of 119 college
undergraduates in 2007at a large university in the Midwestern United States. They also selected
eight participants (two males, six females) from the online survey respondent pool for
conducting open-ended in-depth face-to-face interviews. Their findings seemed to suggest that
Facebook is inextricably linked to users daily lives as they perform specific routines and rituals
on the website (Debatin, et. al, 2009). Debatin, et.al (2009) found that while the users claimed
knowledge of issues of privacy, they reported disclosing large amounts of personal information
on Facebook. It was found that users felt that risks to privacy invasion were more relevant to
others than to the self. But the researchers (Debatin, et.al, 2009) found that users who had
experienced privacy invasion earlier, were more likely to change privacy settings than the ones
who had only heard of privacy invasions in the case of others. Debatin, et.al, (2009) interpret this
callous attitude of the users as the outcome of high gratification, usage patterns, and a
psychological mechanism known as third-person effect.

Generally, studies dealing with exploring the relationship between Facebook usage and social
capital have not taken into consideration the role of privacy in what content users decide to share
through the website and its impact on social capital. Social capital can only be obtained if users
of a social networking site such as Facebook interact with their social network on the website
and in the process of interaction indulge in some self-disclosure which is essential for their social
networks online to give response accordingly (Ellison, 2011c) (as cited in Stutzman, et.al, 2012).
But concerns related to privacy on social network sites may become an impediment to some
forms of disclosures on these websites. A study has shown the association between
privacy and social capital in the context of a social networking site. It found that the use of
segmented privacy settings on Facebook, like limiting access to specific updates or to ones
profile more generally, is positively related to perceptions of social capital (Ellison et al., 2011c)
(as cited in Stutzman, et.al, 2012). The finding seems to indicate that SNS users find it
comfortable to share certain kinds of information online when they have compartmentalized or
partitioned their online social networks into a specific audience with which they are comfortable
in sharing the content of a specific nature (Stutzman, et.al, 2012). In the design community,
there are a number of active research streams exploring the most effective ways to manage
contexts within SNSs, with the goal of producing rule sets or interfaces that actively foster the
sharing of content to intended, trusted audiences .The design community knows how to manage
the complexity of heterogeneous online networks and this may encourage SNS users to have a
larger network of connections and this may have a positive impact on their social capital
(Farnham and Churchill 2011; Kelley et al. 2011; Ozenc and Farnham 2011) ( as cited in
Stutzman, et.al, 2012). Diverse networks would help users to gain access to ties with valuable
resources such as information related to employment opportunities (Stutzman, et.al, 2012).
Stutzman et. al (2012) say that privacy controls such as theCircles available in Google+ may
result in both positive and negative social capital, because these controls do not allow access and
disclosures beyond certain subsets of an individuals network. In fact, Stutzman, et. al (2012)
echo the views of other researchers as they feel the association between privacy and social
capital may be paradoxical because privacy in a SNS context can both increase and adversely
impact social capital.
In their own study, Stutzman, et.al (2012) conducted a survey to analyze the relationship
between SNS privacy, disclosure practices, network composition and engagement, and social
capital outcomes. Their effort was to show how the attitudinal and behavioral relationships have
the potential to either imped the growth of or increase the benefits of social capital by SNS use.
A random sample of 2,500 undergraduate Midwestern university students was taken for the
study. The students in the sample were invited to participate in an online survey regarding their
use of online communication tools. The findings suggest that those who engage in activity with
their friends feel they have more access to resources (Stutzman et. al, 2012). Stutzman, et. al
(2012) say that their findings seem to indicate that privacy concerns on their own may not impact
peoples perceptions of their bridging and bonding social capital. But privacy seems to have a
relationship with an individuals willingness to disclose information, which can affect the
perceived social capital both positively and negatively. This is what they (Stutzman, et. al, 2012)
call the privacy paradox.