Anusha Venkat, Dr. C. Pichandy, Francis P. Barclay & R. Jayaseelan
Abstract: Is Facebook safe and secure? In several cases, it has been evident that users hardly ever give safety a thought before feeding the social network with sensitive and personal information. That’s exactly why such a question rather rattles an average active user that pays little or no heed to the security concerns revolving the online network. As Facebook becomes increasingly popular in India, as in the other parts of the world, a demand for a scientific investigation has risen. Are users aware of the safety risks that Facebook poses? Are they aware of the privacy settings on the site? If yes, how efficiently they manage privacy? Are they proactive when it comes to privacy management on the social network? To find answers to these critical questions, the researchers adopted a scientific survey method covering parts of North and South India. As many as 406 active Facebook users were chosen for the investigation. While a major chunk of them were unaware of the privacy settings, even part of those who were aware were poor at privacy management on Facebook. Another important revelation of the study was that most users’ personal data were open to the public, while they were of the belief that their data weren’t. And, a majority of the users weren’t aware of the privacy concerns associated with the popular social networking website.
No responses yet