Information technology does come with one major flaw that software programmers and online products must overcome: releasing too much privacy. Facebook has an interesting situation though, users reveal as much about themselves as they want on their profiles, and it is not an issue of the web site accidentally revealing information to other companies for a profit [4]. Since the growth of its user base, Facebook has implemented many new privacy options into its core layout on user’s profile pages, but from a study done on 343 university students from Ontario, Canada, most users were not willing to sacrifice their popularity online for strict privacy settings. [1]. “This methodological distinction may explain why individuals in our study who had higher self-esteem scores also reported that they would be more likely to use the Facebook privacy settings. Those with higher self-esteem may have less need for the input of others into their self-construction,” says Emily Christofides, M.Sc., Amy Muise, M.Sc., and Serge Desmarais, Ph. [1]. They have also concluded that maturity of the user plays an important role in the amount of privacy that is displayed on a user’s profile. The researchers admit that if the study was done on a slightly older demographic, the results may have been skewed more towards the need for privacy other than popularity with the amount of information that was disclosed.
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