Cybersecurity Challenges in Social Media Erdal Ozkaya

2.2.5
 
Impacts of privacy, trust and user activity on intentions of sharing Facebook 
photos 
Malik et al. ponder on a similar issue that this thesis is focused on, privacy and its 
impacts to users (2016). The authors of this research paper concentrate on the possible 
impacts of users sharing their photos on Facebook. The authors emphasize that there is little 
that is known about how privacy issues on social media are influencing the sharing of photos 
on social media, in this case, Facebook. They, therefore, seek to find the consequences of the 
current privacy issues on Facebook users’ intentions to share photos. In their paper, Malik et 
al. discuss the normal usage patterns of users on social media networks (2016). They claim 
that the current usage patterns of posting personal information and pictures has been exposing 
users to more privacy and security risks. They also note that users are seemingly unaware 
about this. On the other hand, they say that social media platforms are profiting from this 
ignorance. They have been selling this information to third parties and, also, using it for 
advertising purposes. This thesis shares the same idea that social media platforms are the 
main beneficiaries of the personal information exposure of social media users. They have, 
therefore, been encouraging users to share more just to harvest more of the advertisement-
ready content from their profiles. 
When narrowing their research to photos, Malik et al. say that one of the visible usage 
patterns of social media platforms has been the posting of pictures (2016). From their 
statistics, they estimate that over 350 million photos are uploaded daily on Facebook and the 
sum total when all top five social media platforms are combined jumps to 1.8 billion (2016). 
They fault the research community for not giving enough attention to the impacts that privacy 
issues have had on users’ tendency to share photos on social media. They say that the impact 
is unknown, hence their focus on this problem. They, therefore, bring up the following three 
research questions: 

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1.
How do users’ privacy concerns and awareness impact their trust in Facebook? 
2.
How do users’ privacy concerns and awareness impact their activity on Facebook? 
3.
How do users’ trust levels influence their Facebook photo sharing? 
In their review of literature, Malik et al. bring to light the fact that a number of earlier 
researchers have said that social media sites encourage users to share their personal 
information (2016). Despite the users being given some privacy settings, they are lazy and, 
therefore, ignore. In one of the quoted literature, 36% of the Facebook user population make 
profile posts with default settings. These posts, therefore, get to the public domain and are 
exposed to more people than users can imagine. Other literature also highlight that social 
media users underestimate the security threats on social media.
Malik et al. bring forth their research model which is aimed at explaining the impacts 
of privacy awareness and concerns on the trust and usage of Facebook. The usage pattern that 
their research model focuses on is the sharing of pictures. Their research model is warranted 
by the fact that social media users have increasingly been warned about the privacy issues on 
social media. These researchers try to uncover an area that has been so far ignored by earlier 
researchers, of the effect of privacy concerns on the sharing of information on social media 
(2016). Malik et al. posit that the social media space is quite different and there is a 
possibility that despite the increased awareness campaigns, social media users might still be 
sharing personal information that they have been warned against sharing (2016). They give a 
defense for this. They observe that social media activity has only been rising. In their 
research model, they give an early deduction that Facebook users trust the platform and might 
be more willing than not to keep on posting. In their study and findings of 378 users, they 
identify that privacy awareness has led to more trust in Facebook. In their area of focus, 
which is photo uploading, users that were aware of privacy concerns would make future 
uploads to a more limited number of connections. This was due to the trust that their pictures 

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would only get to the people that they intended. As can be seen from their results, it can be 
said that users are not growing scared of Facebook once they learn of the privacy issues; they 
are using it but in a safer way. These results offer some insight to the thesis. They give hope 
that some of the mitigation measures it aims at giving to users will not lead to the death of 
some social media sites. Rather, sensitization of users on privacy issues on social media will 
lead to more careful usage.
Malik et al. also come to a finding that there was a positive relationship between 
privacy awareness and Facebook activity (2016). Therefore, privacy awareness did not force 
users to shy away from this social media. When explained on the privacy issues and safe 
usage patterns of Facebook, it can be seen that users did not abandon this platform. They 
were more aware of their privacy and security on these platforms and knew how they could 
secure themselves. In turn, this led them to use Facebook with a higher level of trust. This is a 
good indication for this thesis. It can be deduced that when users are taught on several 
privacy protection measures, they are likely to feel more confident in a social media platform 
and thus use it more. This is a finding that is welcomed by this thesis. In the 
recommendations, the thesis aims at teaching users several techniques to use to secure 
themselves on social media. This research paper by Malik et al. is an important realization of 
what is most likely going to be the outcome of the user education exercise (2016). Users will 
not feel restrained from using these social media platforms; rather, they will be encouraged to 
use them in a safe way in which they do not put themselves in danger.
In conclusion to this study, it is important to pick up the most important contributions 
of Malik et al. to the topic of privacy in social media. The researchers have secluded and 
investigated one form of content sharing, the uploading of photos on social media. Their 
research has pointed out the impacts of social media privacy concerns on this type of activity. 
Fortunately, they have determined that user awareness on social media threats do not lead to a 

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complete seizing of social media activity. When users better understand the privacy risks and 
the threats they face and how to handle them, they are more motivated to share content. This 
thesis is aimed at promoting user awareness as part of the ways to mitigate the problem of 
social media privacy. There are simply too many users that do not know how to protect their 
online privacy. There are others that have not taken the initiative to improve their social 
media privacy by hiding some information from the public domain. This research is aimed at 
these types of users. Malik et al. have already determined that if these users are enlightened 
on social media privacy, they will not ditch these revolutionary communication tools; rather, 
they will gain more trust in them. It is an outcome that this thesis hopes for. Malik et al. to 
have opened eyes on a topic that other researchers had paid a blind eye to, and that is why it 
has been considered in this thesis.