Privacy Online

Communications and personal information that are posted online are usually accessible to a vast number of people. Yet when personal data exist online, they may be searched, reproduced and mined by advertisers, merchants, service providers or even stalkers. Many users know what may happen to their information, while at the same time they act as though their data are private or intimate. They expect their privacy will not be infringed while they willingly share personal information with the world via social network sites, blogs, and in online communities.

The chapters collected by Trepte and Reinecke address questions arising from this disparity that has often been referred to as the privacy paradox. Works by renowned researchers from various disciplines including psychology, communication, sociology, and information science, offer new theoretical models on the functioning of online intimacy and public accessibility, and propose novel ideas on the how and why of online privacy.

The contributing authors offer intriguing solutions for some of the most pressing issues and problems in the field of online privacy. They investigate how users abandon privacy to enhance social capital and to generate different kinds of benefits. They argue that trust and authenticity characterize the uses of social network sites. They explore how privacy needs affect users’ virtual identities. Ethical issues of privacy online are discussed as well as its gratifications and users’ concerns. The contributors of this volume focus on the privacy needs and behaviors of a variety of different groups of social media users such as young adults, older users, and genders. They also examine privacy in the context of particular online services such as social network sites, mobile internet access, online journalism, blogs, and micro-blogs.

In sum, this book offers researchers and students working on issues related to internet communication not only a thorough and up-to-datetreatment of online privacy and the social web. It also presents a glimpse of the future by exploring emergent issues concerning new technological applications and by suggesting theory-based research agendas that can guide inquiry beyond the current forms of social technologies.

From the reviews:

“Trepte and Reinecke … have compiled contributions from 31 authors to produce this volume. … it is a well-written, easily understood text. … This is a great source for privacy researchers and laypeople who are concerned about their own privacy in the ever-increasing virtual world. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.” (B. G. Turner, Choice, Vol. 49 (5), January, 2012)

“The chapters provide a useful overview of the current research into online privacy, mainly as a social behavior, but also offering some consideration of its institutional or structural dimensions. ... As a primer on the major theoretical influences, bodies of scholarship, and methodological approaches to studying online privacy as a behavioral contruct, this collection certainly constitutes a valuable resource.” (T. Shepherd, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol. 56 (4), 2012)

“This book will benefit anyone interested in reading it. … the easily read yet profoundly insightful presentations will be quite helpful in thinking about the intersection of personal and technological factors that create the confusing world of online privacy. Each chapter has a comprehensive list of references, and the comprehensive index is quite helpful. … This presentation is … about the human needs and interactions that inform such technology.” (Brad Reid, ACM Computing Reviews, February, 2012)

Sabine Trepte has been a Professor of Media Management at the Hamburg Media School, Germany, since 2006. She is the head of the research project “How Web 2.0 Use Affects the Users’ Need for Privacy and Self-Disclosure: A Longitudinal Study,” funded by the German Research Foundation, where she and her research team focus on the effects of the use of social networking sites and weblogs on self-disclosure, the need for privacy, and social capital. She has published five books and numerous journal articles in these areas.

Leonard Reinecke is a member of Sabine’s research team at the Hamburg Media School. Together with Sabine, he founded the “Young Scholars’ Network on Privacy & Web 2.0,” which is funded by the German Research Foundation and unites 15 international scholars from five countries.  Leonard has published his research in a number of international peer-reviewed journals.