Status updates: An analysis of privacy on social networking websites

This study focused on privacy and information that is shared on Facebook by college-aged students. A sample size of 33 was selected to participate in long interviews with topics and questions about their Facebook profiles, privacy and hypothetical situations with information and privacy. The responses were analyzed qualitatively for themes to discover where participants draw the line to access of their personal information, how much personal information they publish on social networking website profiles and how aware they are of how their information is disseminated on Facebook. Results showed that participants shared many types of information that other participants considered private because they trust Facebook. They were also uneducated about Facebook's privacy settings and how to use them to their advantage. Participants consistently chose reactive measures over proactive measures when it came to protecting themselves on Facebook.