Privacy Awareness in Social Networks by Gustavo Rauber & Virgílio Almeida

Author:Gustavo Rauber & Virgílio Almeida [Rauber, Gustavo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-06-15T07:00:00+00:00

5.5. H5: Friends List Exposure

33

of his friends list, but not every application needs it or should have access to it. It is

possible to hide the friends list from particular friends on the user profile page but not

from applications, which are made most of the time by complete strangers and most

of whom are rarely full of good intentions.

These results refute Hypothesis 5.

Figure 5.5. Example of a simple permission request dialog on Facebook. The

friends list is treated as a basic information such as the name or the gender of the

user and does not require a specific permission.

34

Chapter 5. Results

5.6

H6: Date of Birth Exposure

Using the P F data set, no huge contrast was found between Brazil and India with

respect to date of birth protection. Nonetheless, the exposure levels are disturbingly

high for such a personal information (refer to Figure 5.6). In Brazil, about 64.4% of the participants and their friends expose their full date of birth to their network, while

in India the equivalent statistic is a bit lower, at 62.3%.

An important contrast was found between genders concerning the date of birth

exposure. Although still high, women seem to be more concerned than men regarding

its exposure, wheresoever. For instance, in Brazil 60.7% of the women expose their full

date of birth while the same statistic reaches 71.6% of the men. The full results are

presented in Table 5.6.

70

Brazil

60

India

All

50

40

centage 30

Per

20

10

0

Full Birthday

MonthDay

Not Disclosed

Figure 5.6. Date of birth exposure distribution from the data set P F . The

majority of users expose their full birthday.

The age distribution of users could be derived from those who disclose their date

of birth (refer to Figure 5.7). It is observed that participants and their networks of friends are concentrated in young age strips (< 36 years). One might think that there

is an over representation from these age strips but, according to Facebook Ads [2012],

they represent 76% and 90% of users in Brazil and India, respectively.

These results refute Hypothesis 6.

5.6. H6: Date of Birth Exposure

35

100

Over 55

46-55

80

36-45

26-35

18-25

centage

Under 18

60

er

40

ccumulated P

20

A

0

Brazil

India Others

All

Figure 5.7. Age breakdown from those in the P F data set who revealed their

date of birth. The majority of users belong to 18 – 35 years age group.

Table 5.6. Full date of birth exposure reach across different genders in the P F

data set. A high percentage of users share their birthdate with their network,

specially men. Figures with 95% confidence level.

Female

Male

Avg(%) ± Std. Error

Avg(%) ± Std. Error

Brazil

60.70 ± 0.02

71.61 ± 0.01

India

58.11 ± 0.02

64.60 ± 0.01

Others

52.54 ± 0.02

54.81 ± 0.01

All

62.07 ± 0.01

68.76 ± 0.01

36

Chapter 5. Results

5.7

Further Analyses

5.7.1

Egocentric Networks

Even though most people have hundreds of friends on OSNs like Facebook, it is hard

to maintain a stable social relationship with all of them.

In fact, this number of

average stable social relationships one can maintain (known as Dunbar’s number) has

been calculated and lies between 100 and 230, although 150 is a commonly accepted

value [Hernando, A. et al., 2010]. Features like wall posts, personal messages and comments on shared items allow users to interact virtually to a great number of friends

asynchronously. One feature, though, reflects a kind of interaction that is only possible

in real life: photo albums, since you can only take pictures with people you have met

personally.

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