Facebook is known for its “privacy trainwrecks” (boyd, 2008) and has been criticised for its handling of these issues, often retreating until its users adjust to the changes brought upon them (Grimmelmann, 2009). However, there is more to look at when assessing privacy concerns around Facebook; to purely blame Facebook would be an exercise in technological determinism, instead there are societal and cultural values, political persuasions and economic motivations that shape the technology (Williams & Edge, 1996). As Clay Shirky has said, “[t]he human condition infects everything it touches” (1995, as cited in Grimmelmann, 2009, p. 1206). It is the users who perpetrate the crimes of privacy on Facebook. This paper argues that users are not innocent bystanders, but rather active participants in privacy violations against one another. From the moment users begin to create their identity-image, through to when they rapidly multiply their audience by accepting acquaintances as Friends; they are setting themselves up for context collisions, which they will experience as privacy violations (Grimmelmann, 2009). “The privacy violations are bottom-up; they emerge spontaneously from the natural interactions of users with different tastes, goals, and expectations” (Grimmelmann, 2009, p. 1188). Users and their Friends – motivated so strongly by their social tendencies – are their own greatest privacy foe.
