Privacy Management on SNS Profile: Analysis of Sandra Petronio's Theory

Issue: №01/2020

Volume: 1

The article discusses the possibility of Communication Privacy Management theory applying to research the self-disclosure in a social network site (SNS) profile. In response to increased popularity of SNS and applications that use open user data, the privacy of personal information has become an important area of research. However, making the decision about self-disclosure and privacy in the online space is a more complex process compared to traditional forms of communication. It cannot be explained in terms of the self-disclosure classical models created in the pre-Internet era. The purpose of this article is to test the possibility of explaining the privacy management process in the SNS profile (in one-to-many communication) using Sandra Petronio's theory. Analyzing the results of research, we highlighted the features of privacy management in the profile: the user cannot see the others reaction to his self-disclosure and he also face such phenomena as an imaginary audience and the context collapse. It makes difficult to understand the real audience composition and draw the most correct privacy boundaries. A critical analysis of the main suppositions of the Sandra Petronio's theory has been conducted. The results showed that the theory allows to describe social relations and determine the rights and participants obligations in the privacy management process in SNS profile. At the same time, the theory does not take into account certain features of the online context. For example, SNS administration is always the co-owner of the user's disclosed information. Meanwhile, only user is fully responsible for privacy his personal data because he does not have the ability to discuss privacy rules with other users. The authors present their own factors that influence the decision-making process on the information privacy online in addition to the factors already described in the theory.

Keywords : self-disclosure, personal data, social network sites, profile, communication privacy management

Highlights : The article discusses the possibility of Communication Privacy Management theory applying to research the self-disclosure in a social network site (SNS) profile. In response to increased popularity of SNS and applications that use open user data, the privacy of personal information has become an important area of research. However, making the decision about self-disclosure and privacy in the online space is a more complex process compared to traditional forms of communication. It cannot be explained in terms of the self-disclosure classical models created in the pre-Internet era. The purpose of this article is to test the possibility of explaining the privacy management process in the SNS profile (in one-to-many communication) using Sandra Petronio's theory. Analyzing the results of research, we highlighted the features of privacy management in the profile: the user cannot see the others reaction to his self-disclosure and he also face such phenomena as an imaginary audience and the context collapse. It makes difficult to understand the real audience composition and draw the most correct privacy boundaries. A critical analysis of the main suppositions of the Sandra Petronio's theory has been conducted. The results showed that the theory allows to describe social relations and determine the rights and participants obligations in the privacy management process in SNS profile. At the same time, the theory does not take into account certain features of the online context. For example, SNS administration is always the co-owner of the user's disclosed information. Meanwhile, only user is fully responsible for privacy his personal data because he does not have the ability to discuss privacy rules with other users. The authors present their own factors that influence the decision-making process on the information privacy online in addition to the factors already described in the theory.

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