Claimed vs observed information disclosure on social networking sites

Research on internet users reports a gap between reported privacy concerns and observed privacy behavior. This gap has also been reported on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. This current study explores the extent of this gap by examining individual Facebook components. Unlike the previous studies that have explored reported privacy concerns versus observed behavior, this study explores claimed information disclosure versus observed information disclosure. A questionnaire was used to examine the reported information disclosure and observations on public Facebook profiles were conducted to examine the actual behavior. The study shows that there is a gap between the reported information disclosure and observed disclosure, like in the case of reported privacy concern versus observed behavior. However, this study shows that the users act more securely than they claim to act.