Measuring Users’ Privacy Concerns in Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites (SNSs) have become increasingly popular in recent years. These websites allow millions of individuals to create online profiles and disclose information with others. The disclosure of personal information has been considered as a major issue which can lead to negative consequences; therefore, privacy is a major concern of SNSs users. It is important to understand and measure the complexity of privacy concerns in SNSs. In this study, we investigate the nature of users’ privacy concerns in SNSs and its differences with information privacy concerns which previously studied in the setting of Internet and e-commerce. We then propose a new scale for measuring users’ privacy concerns in SNSs (UPCSNS) which will be useful for future SNSs privacy studies.