Making Decisions about Self-Disclosure in Online Social Networks

This paper explores privacy calculus decision making processes for online social networks (OSN). Content analysis method is applied to analyze data obtained from face-to-face interviews and online survey with open-ended questions of 96 OSN users from different countries. The factors users considered before self-disclosing are explored. The perceived benefits and risks of using OSN and their impact on self-disclosure are also identified. We determine that the perceived risks of OSN usage hinder selfdisclosure. It is not clear, however, whether the perceived benefits offset the impact of the risks on selfdisclosure behavior. The findings as a whole do not support privacy calculus in OSN settings.