to security risks and threats.
foster the sharing of a wide breadth and depth of information about oneself to both individual
and multiple others in a single click, the notion populated by the mass media that individuals are
psychologically blind to the security risks associated with that sharing is somewhat erroneous and
misleading.
to complete any online
activity without divulging some
self-information, so-called self-
disclosure. From the involuntary
but necessary sharing of personal
details to complete financial
social networking sites; some level of self-revelation is essential for completing almost any
online activity. These activities, or behavioural goals, can be wide-ranging from online banking,
information seeking, gaming, shopping and communicating via diverse mediums such as email,
video conferencing and instant messaging, to socialising via social networking sites and the most
fundamental of human interpersonal interactions, the seeking of a new life and/or romantic
partner via Internet dating sites. All of these activities can be interrupted or manipulated by
individuals who seek out such personal information with nefarious intent in mind.
self-information on the Internet and to this possible malicious intent. From a psychological
perspective, this is simply not the case! To the contrary, there are some positively distinct
advantages to interacting with both known and unknown others online and with pursuing
diverse behavioural goals online. The Internet provides an excellent arena for the exploration of
one's self-image, self-definition and self-evaluation. The psychological trade-off for these activities
is the necessary sharing of self-information to attain those goals, with self-disclosure being
managed through a number of psychological processes that minimise security risks. One such
process is that of privacy concern.
of different types of privacy. Whereas the term
privacy might mean the protection of personal
data to one person, it could suggest no third party
monitoring in online communications to others.
information to others to attain certain behavioural goals. This privacy concern is subjective
and often associated with personality traits such as extraversion or dispositional trust. Our
regulation of the information we share online is not overly different. Online self-disclosure is
influenced by many factors to create a complex interplay of when, why, where and how people
reveal personal and detailed information online. It might be the case that the influencing factors
and goals of online and offline activities are guided by different processes. For instance, offline,
people voluntarily forego privacy concerns in return for the rewards offered by supermarket
loyalty cards, yet they would not divulge their address, telephone number and further identifying
information to a checkout assistant every time they shop. Online, the same information is
a prerequisite for most financial transactions, and we readily provide that information, often
without reading the terms and conditions of any given website. Our only desire or goal in that
moment is to complete the transaction as quickly and easily as possible. Nonetheless, we are
likely more aware of the security risks associated with such single instances of online disclosures
than of the risks associated with building up a catalogue of shared information across a multitude
of diverse websites.