The ‘Privacy Paradox’ Investigation among the African American College Students: Privacy Concerns and Self-Disclosure on the Social Network Sites

Abstract

This article examines the current status of privacy risk concern on Social Network Sites (SNS) among African American college students in a HBCU college in the United States. It also investigates the gender difference on this issue. The research focuses on the ‘privacy paradox’ phenomenon on SNS, in other words, how SNS users’ privacy risk concern associates with their self-disclosure activity. The research findings are interesting and confirm the ‘privacy paradox’ phenomenon among the less studied African American college student community. The results show although the participants of the study fear something unpleasant can happen to them due to their presence on SNS and realize it is risky to publish their personal information on SNS, they still do some self-disclosure activities such as post photos and status. When they see the threat to their privacy due to their presence on SNS, they still post their status and videos on SNS. When they feel unsafe to publish their personal information on SNS, they still post photos and videos on SNS. Gender only significantly affect the post photo self-disclosure activity on SNS. The research contributes to the academia by investigating privacy concerns on the rarely studied minority community i.e., African American college student body. The study can provide tips for the privacy policy practitioners when they make or modify their privacy policies.