Social media and privacy

Edgar Elias Rodriguez Mena

Master's thesis

Abstract:

In the following thesis paper, it will be defined the aspects of social media, interactions with humans, its history and influence in today's culture. Furthermore, we will lay and aim on a detailed manner the research questions and the procedure of approach that will be used for the thesis and the research in general. Likewise, we will show they type of structure chose and the limitations that may arise while conducting our research. On further chapters, we go into more explanations about Online privacy behaviours, the beginnings of social media, how Facebook was born. Similarly, we show what is a data taxonomy and how it applies to social media, how companies handle the data and the options they do give users and under which conditionsCorrespondingly we mention the biggest scandal Facebook has faced regarding data privacy and social media privacy, about Cambridge Analytica, and we go deep in our findings, describing what went wrong, what was done and what were the consequences. Even so, we conducted our research, which was developed particularly by conducting observational-based research, taking a sample data of 400 profiles from cross-platform social media such as Facebook and Instagram, divided into friend and non-friend profiles. The observation and variables are defined for the criteria observed range from almost 20 different inputs such as age, country of origin, marital status and then deepening more with different variables, classifying them into different data groups. For this reason, descriptive statistics are described along with regression test to further certify the value and weight of the variables along with correlation tests, to answer all of our research questions. Correspondingly, the results were then placed into a model, taking into account different social behavioural definitions, taking the results from the regression tests, and relevant variables were then modeled and classified.

Abstract:

In the following thesis paper, it will be defined the aspects of social media, interactions with humans, its history and influence in today's culture. Furthermore, we will lay and aim on a detailed manner the research questions and the procedure of approach that will be used for the thesis and the research in general. Likewise, we will show they type of structure chose and the limitations that may arise while conducting our research. On further chapters, we go into more explanations about Online privacy behaviours, the beginnings of social media, how Facebook was born. Similarly, we show what is a data taxonomy and how it applies to social media, how companies handle the data and the options they do give users and under which conditionsCorrespondingly we mention the biggest scandal Facebook has faced regarding data privacy and social media privacy, about Cambridge Analytica, and we go deep in our findings, describing what went wrong, what was done and what were the consequences. Even so, we conducted our research, which was developed particularly by conducting observational-based research, taking a sample data of 400 profiles from cross-platform social media such as Facebook and Instagram, divided into friend and non-friend profiles. The observation and variables are defined for the criteria observed range from almost 20 different inputs such as age, country of origin, marital status and then deepening more with different variables, classifying them into different data groups. For this reason, descriptive statistics are described along with regression test to further certify the value and weight of the variables along with correlation tests, to answer all of our research questions. Correspondingly, the results were then placed into a model, taking into account different social behavioral definitions, taking the results from the regression tests, and relevant variables were then modeled and classified.

Keywords

Privacy, Facebook, Social Media, User Profiles, Shared data

Keywords

User profiles, Privacy settings, Shared Data, Social Media, Facebook, Privacy, Social Media sites, Instagram

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 6. 6. 2018

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 25. 8. 2020
• Supervisor: Antonín Pavlíček
• Reader: Martin Potančok

Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze

Master programme / field:
Aplikovaná informatika / Information Systems Management