Profiling Facebook Users’ Privacy Behaviors

Social Network Sites (SNSs) such as Facebook offer a plethora of privacy controls, but users rarely exploit all of these controls, nor do they do so in a similar manner. In this paper, we analyze distinct profiles of users’ privacy management strategies on Facebook (including but also going beyond information disclosure behavior). We cluster the self-reported privacy behaviors of 308 Facebook users based on the privacy settings and features available in Facebook’s user interface. We extrapolate six distinct privacy profiles, which include: 1) Privacy Maximizers, 2) Selective Sharers, 3) Privacy Balancers, 4) Self-Censors, 5) Time Savers/Consumers, and 6) Privacy Minimalists. Creating such profiles will enable deeper exploration of privacy concerns and behaviors, as well as expose opportunities for personalization of privacy settings, recommendations, and training.