How “friendship” on Facebook between unfamiliar persons raises issues of privacy. 

Abstract: 

Online social networks have become an extremely large part of contemporary society which individuals are consumed by in their every day lives. Due to the large influence social networking sites have on individuals, many issues can arise from particular networking sites. This conference paper will explore the concept of “friendship” on the social networking platform of Facebook and discuss how friendships between unfamiliar persons can raise issues of privacy. In order to gain a clear understanding of the context behind this issue, the social networking site Facebook will be defined as well as the concept of social networks. This paper will then discuss the meaning of “friendship” on Facebook and the making of “friendship”, to then explore how this raises privacy concerns and influences the behaviour of users to therefore argue its negative ramifications. Keywords of this paper include friendship, social networks, privacy, threats and identity. 

Since their creation, social networking sites have been extremely popular with users all over the globe (boyd & Ellison 2007). Individuals use these platforms on a day-to-day basis therefore this online interaction is classified as a high priority in the daily lives of millions of individuals. As stated in the journal article Social Network Sites; Definition, History, and Scholarship, social networking sites are defined as “web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (boyd, Ellison 2007). There are thousands of social networking platforms available to anyone with a connection to the world wide web which are used by individuals to share parts of their personal lives online. The term “networking” places emphasis on relationship initiation, particularly between strangers as social networking sites give individuals the opportunity to form a connection with others whom they have never met before in an online environment (boyd & Ellison, 2007). Founded in 2004 by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook quickly became the world’s largest social networking platform, with more than 2.34 billion monthly active users (Hall, 2019). When developing Facebook, Zuckerberg stated that he did not care about the platform looking cool and showy, but was more concerned with producing a “social utility that connects you with people around you” (Papacharissi ,2009). As with all social networking sites, Facebook is centred around a visible, personal profile, known as a “wall”, to which users can share information with particular individuals with whom they choose to be their Facebook “friends”. Users can post photos, videos and status’ as well as have the ability to present a carefully compiled selection of their interests, likes, dislikes and affiliations while being able to interact with the activity of others through “liking” and commenting. All of this content on Facebook can be visible on the Facebook newsfeed, which is the main page of the social networking site. Most Facebook users share this personal information openly with only few modifying their settings for increased privacy and protection (Papacharissi 2009). 

Friendship is a high priority in everyday life for majority of individuals, as having close people around to share experiences and moments with is what makes life enjoyable. As stated by Boyd in the online article titled Friends, Friendsters and Top 8: Writing Community Into Being Social Network Sites, friendship is based off mutual love and admiration, however different individuals have different definitions of what it means to be a friend, particularly regarding an online friendship (2006). Online friendship has both similarities and differences to a friendship in real life. Most friendships offline are built and maintained through spending quality time with one another, however an online friendship does not give individuals this opportunity. Quality time is arguably the most important aspect of a friendship, however many believe that strong friendships can also exist online. With new digital technologies and advancements, social networking sites give users the ability to be more connected with others in an online environment than ever before which enables online friendships to work and thrive. In particular, Facebook allows users to view each others posts such as videos photos and status’, interact with them, instantly message other users, in a one-on-one and group environment, as well as audio and video call one another. This online interaction however, can only exist between Facebook “friends”. In order to become “friends” with another user on Facebook, one must send a friend request through their profile to the other user. The recipient of this request then has the ability to either accept or deny the user as a “friend”. By accepting a friendship request, the two users’ information, posts and activity will then become visible to one another. In theory, These Facebook friendships can exist with anyone from around the world with a Facebook profile. As social networking sites continue to increasingly grow as a priority in an individuals lives due to every day usage, what factors users consider acceptable to constitute becoming Facebook friends with others has drastically changed as a result of the normality of online life. To consider one as a friend offline, it is likely that the friendship involves quality time spent together and one to one communication, while knowing the other individual on a personal level. Facebook friends however can be considered more like acquaintances of people you have met once as some Facebook users have hundreds or even thousands of Facebook friends. This means that users therefore send requests and accept friendship from people who they may not consider a real friend offline. These friendships can be explained as strong and weak ties. Strong ties exist among close friends and require much attention. Weak ties however exist among people one knows in a limited context, however can present information and opportunities that can benefit users. According to Boyd (2007), the most common reasons for online friendships are true friends, acquaintances, family members and colleagues. It is socially inappropriate or considered rude to deny a friendship request. And having a large number of friends can make an individual look popular and it is easier to say yes than it is to say no.  Due to both strong and weak ties on Facebook, it raises a number of privacy issues which will be explored below.

For any social networking user, there are various potential threats to privacy. Over time, as privacy has increasingly become one of users biggest concerns, Facebook has developed and implemented many setttings that users can adjust themselves in order to make their profile more private. From a user study conducted over October and November of 2010, results found the main privacy concerns Facebook users have. When asked what is the most important reason for online privacy, 49% of participants stated reputation security to hide information to protect their social reputation. 39% of people answered economic security to prevent identity theft. While 12% of participants stated issues regarding physical security ensuring physical safety (Johnson, 2012). It is common for users to adjust privacy settings in order to limit the content that other users who are not their friends see of their profile from a public perspective in order to limit these above concerns, however this is usually the extent of it. Users are more concerned with what information strangers can and can’t see of their profile, not overly caring about the information “friends” see. It can be assumed that because a user accepts a friendship request on Facebook, it means they are happy with the other user having access to all of their content. This however becomes an issue when users are accepting strangers as friends who they barely know or do not know at all. This therefore means that strangers are able to access a user’s personal details which they have published to their profile such as date of birth, which city or town they live and public events they plan to be attending. These are just a few examples of personal information displayed on Facebook that can threaten a user’s safety and invade their privacy, particularly when this information is accessible to strangers or latent online friendships. In an academic study on social media sites focusing on privacy, Acquisti and Gross (2005) examined 400 Carnegie Mellon University students Facebook profiles in order to outline the potential threats to privacy which can come about from the personal information included on students Facebook profiles. This research had many potentially threatening findings, one of them being the ability for strangers to figure out users’ social security numbers using information listed above, such as their date of birth and hometown .What can seem like harmless information for online friends to know, can potentially negatively impact a user. Particular privacy concerns regards the safety of young Facebook users, particularly students. Research suggests that young users are more oblivious to the potential privacy related threats on Facebook such as knowing one’s location, what they are doing and other personal information and therefore are not proactive in managing their information (boyd, Ellison 2007). As younger users are not threatened by these potential risks, they are therefore more likely to accept friendship requests from users who they do not know well, not caring what information they will soon be privy to, hence decreasing their privacy and putting their personal safety at risk. 

Potential risks related to privacy on Facebook can subsequently impact users’ identity online. With the many features available on Facebook for users to include about themselves, users ultimately have the power to construct a particular representation of themselves that they would like to portray to others. As stated above, users can selectively compile their interests, likes, dislikes and preferences to anything they like, no matter if they are true to them or not (Liu, 2007). As stated in a journal article by Papacharissi,this free ability therefore gives users the ability to construct a false identity as a result of Facebooks customisation as well as steal someone else’s identity (Papacharissi 2009). With the large amount of information and activity that is available to friends, it increases the possibility for anyone to steal another users’ identity. This is another reason why it is  important to consider who users accept friendship requests from as letting a person who you do not know access your personal information immediately presents risks. Regarding online identity, due to images, videos and other posts published by Facebook users, it can make others viewing this particular content to feel they need to alter their behaviour online and their online identity in order to meet particular standards or social norms. This can lead individuals to doubt who they are in comparison to the representation of others online, whether they are friends or not hence leading to the potential development of negative feelings.

As outlined in this conference paper, there are many issues that can arise on Facebook regarding privacy which can consequently influence an individual.  Although there are many factors which can put a user’s privacy at risk while being online such limited knowledge of the social networking site, unavailable settings which can’t be adjusted, insecure passwords and external influences which are out of the users control such as hackers, I believe that the friendship concept on Facebook is a large basis for these issues. Although the ability to become friends with acquaintances and those you may not know personally has its many benefits such as learning and connecting with new and different people, developing relationships online which can transfer offline and becoming privy to certain information, content and opportunities that an individual may not of been otherwise, the negative ramifications which can develop from interaction and connectivity with strangers overrides these positives as they can have negative consequences. As times goes on, the world is continuously becoming more and more digitalised every day which means that relationships are now always going to exist online. In order to minimise the potential risks to safety in relation to privacy concerns, I believe it subsequently comes down to the user in order to protect themselves online by being conscious of their online activity and who they choose to share their online life with. 

References

Acquisti, A., & Gross, R. (2006). Imagined communities: Awareness, information sharing, and  privacy on  Facebook. In P. Golle & G. Danezis (Eds.), Proceedings of 6th Workshop on Privacy Enhancing  Technologies (pp. 36–58). Cambridge, UK

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          Scholarship. Journal  of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1).      

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x/full

Donath, J., & Donath, J., & boyd, d (2004). Public Displays of Connection. BT Technology Journal, 22(4), 71-82. http://smg.media.mit.edu/papers/Donath/socialnetdisplay.draft.pdf

Fono, D., & Raynes-Goldie, K. (2006). Hyperfriendship and Beyond: Friends and Social Norms. Internet Research, 4. 73

Hall, M. (2019). Facebook: Overview, History, & Facts. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Facebook

Johnson, M. (2012). Toward Usable Access Control for End-users: A Case Study of Facebook Privacy Settings (Ph.D). Columbia University.

Liu, H. (2007). Social Network Profiles as Taste Performances. Journal Of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 252-275. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00395.xz

Papacharissi, Z. (2009) The virtual geographies of social networks: a comparative analysis of  Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld. New Media and Society, 11(1&2). 

https://journals-sagepub-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444808099577