Facebook & MySpace

September 2007

Facebook, MySpace users will trade privacy for features. Facebook and MySpace users are willing to let the sites sell their personal data in return for access to the sites' social networking features, according to new research from Pace University. Researchers at the university queried users of Facebook and MySpace in August, asking for their views of the privacy protections offered by the sites and their feelings about how much personal information they are willing to post on social networking sites. A professor at Pace who worked on the study noted that most Facebook and MySpace users said that they're willing to develop online relationships even though they believe that trust and privacy safeguards are weak. Users seem to view the social networking sites as a way to obtain online profiles, photos and the like for free while the sites “can take all their data and do whatever they want with it,” she noted. “Both sites are really interested in monetizing this information as much as possible,” according to the professor. “They don't exist to give people ways to upload photos.” Of those surveyed, less than 5 percent of MySpace users, and slightly more than 5 percent of Facebook users said they believe that the personal information they put on the sites is strongly protected. Still, the respondents told researchers that they are willing to share personal details with others on the sites. More than 85 percent of respondents in both groups reported that they would share a photo of themselves on a social networking site, and 91 percent of Facebook users and 62 percent of MySpace users said they use their real name on such sites, according to the study. In addition, 87 percent of Facebook users and 41 percent of MySpace users post their personal e-mail addresses on the sites.