Autonomous and Interdependent: Collaborative Privacy Management on Social Network Sites

Although information sharing on social networking sites (SNSs) usually involves multiple stakeholders, limited attention has been paid so far to conceptualizing users' information practices as a collaborative process. To fill this gap in the literature, we develop a survey study to examine collaborative privacy management strategies involving co-owners of shared content. By conducting two online surveys (N = 304, 427) with different samples, our findings show how individuals protect online privacy collaboratively and how their autonomous decision making regarding privacy management is shaped by the interdependent use of SNSs with their social connections. We discuss theoretical implications to privacy research and suggest design guidelines for better supporting users' needs for collaborating with their social ties to achieve collective privacy goals.