Users Holding Accounts on Multiple Online Social Networks

Abstract

The last decade has seen an increasing number of online social network (OSN) users. As they grew more and more popular over the years, OSNs became also more and more profitable. Indeed, users share a considerable amount of personal information on these sites, both intentionally and unintentionally. And thanks to this enormous user base, social networks are able to generate recommendations, attract numerous advertisers, and sell data to companies. This situation has sparked a lot of interest in the research community. Indeed, users grow more uncomfortable with the idea that they do not have full control over their own data. The lack of control can even be amplified when a user holds an account on various OSNs. The data she shares is then spread over multiple platforms. This chapter addresses the notion of portable profile, which could help users to gain more control or more awareness of the data collected about her. In this chapter, the authors discuss the advantages and drawbacks of a portable profile. Secondly, they propose a conceptual model for the data in this unified profile.