Information disclosure of social media users

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap in the existing literature by exploring the antecedents of information disclosure of social media users. In particular, the paper investigates the link between information disclosure, control over personal information, user awareness and security notices in the social context, all of which are shown to be different from existing studies in e-commerce environments. Design/methodology/approach – The authors collected and analysed data from 514 social network users. The model is estimated using ordinary least squares and robust standard errors are estimated using the Huber-White sandwich estimators. Findings – The results show that in social networking contexts, control over personal information is negatively and statistically associated with information disclosure. However, both user awareness and security notices have a positive statistical effect on information disclosure. Originality/value – Whilst research on issues of individual information privacy in e-commerce is plentiful, the area of social networking and privacy protection remains under-explored. This paper provides a useful model for analysing information disclosure behaviour on social networks. The authors discuss the practical implications of the findings for actors in social media interactions.