Who Can See My Stuff? Online Self-Disclosure and Gender Differences on Facebook

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS12120181129

Keywords:

self-disclosure, gender, visibility rules, privacy management, Facebook

Abstract

This study investigates the gendered privacy practices and concerns on Facebook, by leaning on the idea of privacy management as a form of digital labour. We analyse if young Facebook users are more concerned about the privacy against other users than against Facebook as a company or against third-party partners. We also analyse if privacy concerns and visibility rules are differentiated by gender. Using a structured online survey, we collected responses from a sample of 813 Italian university students (aged 18-34). Our results show that the respondents have just slightly more privacy concerns against other users than against Facebook, and much less against third-party partners. Unlike a majority of previous studies, we show that women are consistently more concerned about privacy-related risks than men, which can be associated with efforts to take care of digital labour in their everyday life.

Author Biographies

Manuela Farinosi, University of Udine, Italy

Post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage at the University of Udine, Italy.

Sakari Taipale, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

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Published

2018-03-01

How to Cite

Farinosi, M., & Taipale, S. (2018). Who Can See My Stuff? Online Self-Disclosure and Gender Differences on Facebook. Observatorio (OBS*), 12(1). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS12120181129

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2018)

Section

Articles

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