Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter

Dilara Kekulluoglu; Kami Vaniea; Walid Magdy

doi:10.48550/arXiv.2203.08935

Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter

Dilara Kekulluoglu, Kami Vaniea, Walid Magdy

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Changing a Twitter account’s privacy setting between public and protected changes the visibility of past tweets. By inspecting the privacy setting of more than 100K Twitter users over 3 months, we noticed that over 40% of those users changed their privacy setting at least once with around 16% changing it over 5 times. This observation motivated us to explore the reasons why people switch their privacy settings. We studied these switching phenomena quantitatively by comparing the tweeting behaviour of users when public vs protected, and qualitatively using two follow-up surveys (n=100, n=324) to understand potential reasoning behind the observed behaviours. Our quantitative analysis shows that users who switch privacy settings mention others and share hashtags more when their setting is public. Our surveys highlighted that users turn protected to share personal content and regulate boundaries while they turn public to interact with others in ways the protected setting prevents.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Editors	Simone Barbosa, Cliff Lampe, Caroline Appert, David A. Shamma, Steven Drucker, Julie Williamson, Koji Yatani
Place of Publication	New York, NY, USA
Publisher	ACM
Pages	1-14
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Print)	9781450391573
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.08935 https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3517675
Publication status	Published - 28 Apr 2022
Event	The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, United States Duration: 30 Apr 2022 → 5 May 2022 https://chi2022.acm.org/

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISSN (Print)	1062-9432

Conference

Conference	The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Abbreviated title	CHI 2022
Country/Territory	United States
City	New Orleans
Period	30/04/22 → 5/05/22
Internet address	https://chi2022.acm.org/

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

privacy
Twitter
security
online social networks
privacy settings

Access to Document

10.48550/arXiv.2203.08935Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)
10.1145/3491102.3517675Licence: All Rights Reserved

Understanding Privacy_KEKULLUOGLU_DOA10022022_AFVAccepted author manuscript, 653 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

Cite this

Kekulluoglu, D., Vaniea, K., & Magdy, W. (2022). Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter. In S. Barbosa, C. Lampe, C. Appert, D. A. Shamma, S. Drucker, J. Williamson, & K. Yatani (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14). Article 31 (Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems). ACM. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.08935, https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3517675

Kekulluoglu, Dilara ; Vaniea, Kami ; Magdy, Walid. / Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter. Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. editor / Simone Barbosa ; Cliff Lampe ; Caroline Appert ; David A. Shamma ; Steven Drucker ; Julie Williamson ; Koji Yatani. New York, NY, USA : ACM, 2022. pp. 1-14 (Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems).

@inproceedings{80683f9e42c74880befa8d16f32c8867,

title = "Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter",

abstract = "Changing a Twitter account{\textquoteright}s privacy setting between public and protected changes the visibility of past tweets. By inspecting the privacy setting of more than 100K Twitter users over 3 months, we noticed that over 40% of those users changed their privacy setting at least once with around 16% changing it over 5 times. This observation motivated us to explore the reasons why people switch their privacy settings. We studied these switching phenomena quantitatively by comparing the tweeting behaviour of users when public vs protected, and qualitatively using two follow-up surveys (n=100, n=324) to understand potential reasoning behind the observed behaviours. Our quantitative analysis shows that users who switch privacy settings mention others and share hashtags more when their setting is public. Our surveys highlighted that users turn protected to share personal content and regulate boundaries while they turn public to interact with others in ways the protected setting prevents.",

keywords = "privacy, Twitter, security, online social networks, privacy settings",

author = "Dilara Kekulluoglu and Kami Vaniea and Walid Magdy",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the EPSRC DTA award, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the University of Edinburgh. We thank everyone associated with the TULiPS Lab and SMASH Group at the University of Edinburgh for helpful discussions and feedback. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 ACM.; The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2022 ; Conference date: 30-04-2022 Through 05-05-2022",

year = "2022",

month = apr,

day = "28",

doi = "10.48550/arXiv.2203.08935",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781450391573",

series = "Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems",

publisher = "ACM",

pages = "1--14",

editor = "Simone Barbosa and Cliff Lampe and Caroline Appert and Shamma, {David A.} and Steven Drucker and Julie Williamson and Koji Yatani",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

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}

Kekulluoglu, D, Vaniea, K & Magdy, W 2022, Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter. in S Barbosa, C Lampe, C Appert, DA Shamma, S Drucker, J Williamson & K Yatani (eds), Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 31, Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 1-14, The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, 30/04/22. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.08935, https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3517675

Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter. / Kekulluoglu, Dilara; Vaniea, Kami; Magdy, Walid.
Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ed. / Simone Barbosa; Cliff Lampe; Caroline Appert; David A. Shamma; Steven Drucker; Julie Williamson; Koji Yatani. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2022. p. 1-14 31 (Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

TY - GEN

T1 - Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter

AU - Kekulluoglu, Dilara

AU - Vaniea, Kami

AU - Magdy, Walid

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the EPSRC DTA award, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the University of Edinburgh. We thank everyone associated with the TULiPS Lab and SMASH Group at the University of Edinburgh for helpful discussions and feedback. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 ACM.

PY - 2022/4/28

Y1 - 2022/4/28

N2 - Changing a Twitter account’s privacy setting between public and protected changes the visibility of past tweets. By inspecting the privacy setting of more than 100K Twitter users over 3 months, we noticed that over 40% of those users changed their privacy setting at least once with around 16% changing it over 5 times. This observation motivated us to explore the reasons why people switch their privacy settings. We studied these switching phenomena quantitatively by comparing the tweeting behaviour of users when public vs protected, and qualitatively using two follow-up surveys (n=100, n=324) to understand potential reasoning behind the observed behaviours. Our quantitative analysis shows that users who switch privacy settings mention others and share hashtags more when their setting is public. Our surveys highlighted that users turn protected to share personal content and regulate boundaries while they turn public to interact with others in ways the protected setting prevents.

AB - Changing a Twitter account’s privacy setting between public and protected changes the visibility of past tweets. By inspecting the privacy setting of more than 100K Twitter users over 3 months, we noticed that over 40% of those users changed their privacy setting at least once with around 16% changing it over 5 times. This observation motivated us to explore the reasons why people switch their privacy settings. We studied these switching phenomena quantitatively by comparing the tweeting behaviour of users when public vs protected, and qualitatively using two follow-up surveys (n=100, n=324) to understand potential reasoning behind the observed behaviours. Our quantitative analysis shows that users who switch privacy settings mention others and share hashtags more when their setting is public. Our surveys highlighted that users turn protected to share personal content and regulate boundaries while they turn public to interact with others in ways the protected setting prevents.

KW - privacy

KW - Twitter

KW - security

KW - online social networks

KW - privacy settings

U2 - 10.48550/arXiv.2203.08935

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M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 9781450391573

T3 - Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems

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EP - 14

BT - Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

A2 - Barbosa, Simone

A2 - Lampe, Cliff

A2 - Appert, Caroline

A2 - Shamma, David A.

A2 - Drucker, Steven

A2 - Williamson, Julie

A2 - Yatani, Koji

PB - ACM

CY - New York, NY, USA

T2 - The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Y2 - 30 April 2022 through 5 May 2022

ER -

Kekulluoglu D, Vaniea K, Magdy W. Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter. In Barbosa S, Lampe C, Appert C, Shamma DA, Drucker S, Williamson J, Yatani K, editors, Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, NY, USA: ACM. 2022. p. 1-14. 31. (Proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems). doi: 10.48550/arXiv.2203.08935, 10.1145/3491102.3517675

Understanding privacy switching behaviour on Twitter

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Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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