Journals Proceedings

Abstract

In the current digital age, Social Networking Sites (SNSs) plays significant role in lives of individuals. Its function as an important mediated interpersonal communication makes the number of people who become members and interact on these platforms increase rapidly in recent years. To become member of SNSs, users have to provide certain amount of personal information, also by using SNSs, users usually reveal their detailed information. The raising concern of privacy issues, especially among teen users on SNSs merits the attention from researchers. According to SocialBakers, from 2012 to 2013, the number of Facebook users in Vietnam has increased 14 million, became one of Facebook’s Top 10 countries with highest user growth. Facebook also draws the largest number of unique visitors among the social networks operating in Vietnam (According to emarketer.com). Thus, Facebook has been chosen as a representative of SNSs to explore the privacy concern of Vietnamese teen users. This paper aims at assessing the privacy settings of Vietnamese Facebook teen user, specifically, examining what kinds of information that users consider private or public content. Furthermore, the research also focuses on Facebook privacy policy awareness by looking at users’ perception of privacy on Facebook. 20 respondents has been recruited to participate in the survey. It was found that the majority of teen users have low level of privacy awareness and over disclose their personal information. Recommendations for future research include figuring out the motivating factors that influence the disclosure of teen users’ personal information on Facebook.