Denial of Choice: Group Level Disclosure of Private Information

While online social networks (OSNs) allow users to selectively share content as well as limit access to information within users’ own virtual spaces, unfortunately there is little or no control on other-generated content. The full study explores an interdependent privacy regarding other-generated disclosures on OSNs from insiders’ perspectives (the ‘discloser’ and the ‘disclosed’), based upon their lived experiences. An online survey was used to recruit suitable participants who meet the purposive sampling criteria. This paper presents some preliminary findings from a current study, based on an online survey. The online survey result reveals a likelihood of activities associated with other-generated disclosure. This study makes a contribution to the scant literature on OSN interdependent privacy as well as draws attention to tackle these privacy issues in order to discover effective detection mechanisms towards practical solutions in the future.