Knowledge of and Vigilance toward Security and Privacy Risks by Facebook Users

1
Knowledge of and Vigilance toward Security and
Privacy Risks by Facebook Users

• Karen H. Smith
• Garry L. White
• McCoy College of Business Administration
• Texas State University-San Marcos

2
The Problem

• Identity theft 10 million Americans in 2008
• Cybercrime up 668 from 2001-2009
• Social sharing increases risks
• Facebook 500 million active users
• Benefits enhance relationships
• Risks privacy and security

3
Knowledge

• Federal Privacy Act of 1974 (Federal Trade
  Commission 2007)
• Importance of knowledge about security and
  privacy risks (Nowak and Phelps 1995 Peltier,
  Milne, and Phelps 2009 Anderson 2010)

4
Vigilance

• Vigilance construct (Matthews, Davies, and Holley
  1993)
• Importance of vigilance (Ramsey and Venkatesan
  2010 Reisz 2005)
• Vigilance uses cognitive resources (Warm
  Parasuraman, and Matthews 2008
• Vigilance decrement (Parasuraman 1987)
• Privacy paradox (Norberg, Horne, and Horne 2007)

5
Narcissism

• Narcissism construct (Raskin and Terry 1988)
• Narcissism and Social Networking (Buffardi and
  Campbell 2008)

6
Hypotheses

• Consumers who lack knowledge about how to protect
  themselves from the security and privacy risks of
  Facebook tend to be less vigilant than
  knowledgeable consumers.
• Consumers who are concerned with security and
  privacy on Facebook tend to rely on technology
  for protection rather than their own vigilance.
• Consumers who are narcissistic tend to post more
  personal information on Facebook.
• Consumers who are narcissistic tend to be less
  vigilant than other consumers.

7
Research Methods

• Focus groups funded
• Nationwide survey funding needed
• Measures
• Knowledge (objective test developed by
  researchers)
• Narcissism scale (Raskin and Terry 1988)
• Vigilance (scale developed by researchers)