The Interplay Between Privacy, Trust and Self-disclosure on Social Networking Sites

Abstract

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have become an essential part of the daily lives of billions of people worldwide. Because SNS service providers use a revenue model that relies on data licensing (selling of user data), they share user data with other parties such as government institutions and private businesses. Sharing of user data to third parties raises several privacy concerns. Apart from privacy issues emanating from SNSs sharing user information with third parties, privacy issues may also emanate from users sharing information with SNS members. This study is motivated by the researchers� interest in investigating self-disclosure amongst Ghanaians especially from the perspective of privacy and trust primarily because of recent reports of revenge pornography and other self-disclosure related privacy violations on SNSs in Ghana. A survey was conducted on 523 students from three private universities in Ghana. Out of the 523 questionnaires administered, 452 were validated for analysis. Data collected from the survey was analyzed using the Partial Least Square approach to Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) performed on SmartPLS Version 3. Results of the study show that privacy awareness, privacy invasion experience, and privacy-seeking behavior have a significant effect on trust in SNS members. Privacy concern was found not to have a significant effect on trust in SNS members. Privacy awareness, privacy concerns, privacy invasion experience, and privacy-seeking behavior were found to have a significant effect on trust in the SNS service provider. Trust in SNS members and trust in the SNS service provider were found to have a significant effect on SNS self-disclosure. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed. � 2019, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.