Facebook: public space, or private space?

Abstract

Social networks have become a central feature of everyday life. Most young people are members of at least one online social network, and they naturally provide a great deal of personal information as a condition for participation in the rich online social lives these networks afford. Increasingly, this information is being used as evidence in criminal and even civil legal proceedings. These latter uses, by actors involved in the justice system, are typically justified on the grounds that social network information is essentially public in nature, and thus does not generate a subjective expectation of privacy necessary to support a civil rights-based privacy protection. This justification, however, is based on the perceptions of individuals who are outside the online social network community, rather than reflecting the norms and privacy practices of participants in online social networks. This project takes a user-centric approach to the question of whether online social spaces are public venues, examining of the information-related practices of social network participants, focusing on how they treat their own information and that of others posted in online social spaces. Our results reveal that online social spaces are indeed loci of public display rather than private revelation: online profiles are structured with the view that ‘everyone’ can see them, even if the explicitly intended audience is more limited. These social norms are inconsistent with the claim that social media are private spaces; instead, it appears that participants view and treat online social networks as public venues.

Keywords:

• privacy
• social media
• Facebook

Acknowledgements

This project has been funded by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC); the view expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the OPC.

Notes on contributors

Jacquelyn Burkell is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Her research and teaching focus on social implications of technology, with a particular emphasis on the effect of technological mediation on access to and use of information. She and her graduate students are active in GRAND NCE, a multidisciplinary research network exploring the application and advancement of graphics, animation and new media in Canada. [email: [email protected]]

Alexandre Fortier is a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. His research interests focus on how individual differences influence the ways in which people need, seek and use information in everyday contexts, with an awareness of the privacy implications of their practices and how that informs information policy. [email: [email protected]]

Lorraine (Lola) Yeung Cheryl Wong is a PhD Student in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on exploring the motivations for and characteristics of the social sharing of news and other non-self generated content. Wong is also the chair of the Graduate Student Postdoc Committee for GRAND NCE. [email: [email protected]]

Jennifer Lynn Simpson, Hon BA (Toronto), JD (Western), MSc (LSE) is currently an articling student at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Ottawa, Ontario. Previously she was a telecom and technology consultant working out of Boston, USA. She expects to be called to the bar in Ontario in 2014. She wishes to thank her co-authors and, in particular, Professor Burkell for the opportunity to enhance her knowledge of privacy law, in Canada and abroad, through this project. [email: [email protected]]