An empirical investigation of the social web gendered privacy model

ABSTRACT

According to Thelwall's ([2011]. “Privacy and Gender in the Social Web.” In Privacy Online. Perspectives on Privacy and Self-Disclosure in the Social Web, edited by S. Trepte and L. Reinecke, 251–266. Springer) social web gendered privacy model, gender differences in offline privacy risks (i.e. experiences of privacy threat, such as aggressive behaviour or betrayal of a secret) and communication qualities transfer to online contexts, and shape gender differences in online privacy perceptions and behaviours. Using representative data (n = 1,043) from four times of measurement over the course of three years, a structural equation model was set up. I found that people with negative offline privacy experiences at T₁ express higher online privacy concerns a year later (T₂), and take more actions to protect their online privacy at T₃. When adequate privacy protection is established, people disclose more personal information privately (e.g. messenger), but not in public (e.g. status updates) at T₄. Females reported more negative offline privacy experiences, offline social support, and offline information disclosure. In contrast to the model’s claims, in an online context, men disclose more personal information both privately and publicly. The results provide evidence for the proposed relations of Thelwall's (2011) model: Offline conditions transfer to online contexts and shape social media users’ privacy perception. However, the findings do not support the idea that women are an especially vulnerable group in online settings.

KEYWORDS:

• privacy
• data protection
• self-disclosure
• privacy concerns
• gender

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Supplemental tables and figures, codes, and data are available at the OSF Project ‘Empirical Investigation of the Social Web Gendered Privacy Model’, cf. https://osf.io/4vd9c/. The data analysis is fully reproducible.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [BMBF, Funding number: 16KIS0094] awarded to Sabine Trepte.