Social media privacy concerns: trusting beliefs and risk beliefs

The purpose of this paper is to build a research model that examines social media privacy concerns (SMPC) in relation to users’ trusting beliefs and risk beliefs.

An instrument with eight constructs (SMPC: collection, SMPC: secondary usage, SMPC: errors, SMPC: improper access, SMPC: control, SMPC: awareness, trusting beliefs and risk beliefs) was developed and administered to subjects from a mid-sized university in the USA. Collected data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling.

The results showed that three of the six SMPC (i.e. secondary usage, improper access and awareness) were negatively and significantly associated with users’ trusting beliefs. In addition, three of the six SMPC (i.e. collection, errors and improper access) were positively and significantly associated with users’ risk beliefs.

Practical implications were aimed at the social media sites to design simple and straightforward privacy policy statements that are easy to understand; to safeguard users’ online privacy behaviors; and to develop mechanisms to protect personal information.

This study enhances the literature by contributing to a generalized knowledge of SMPC of users as they relate to their trusting beliefs and risk beliefs.