Study: Facebook Users More Protective Even as They Reveal More About Themselves

A new study from Carnegie Mellon University is one of the lengthiest surveys about Facebook privacy ever. The survey took place over a seven year period, beginning in 2005 and concluding last year, in 2012. The survey found that, despite more specific privacy settings, users actually shared more information with the public over time.

Mark Zuckerberg speaks about Facebook's privacy policy in 2010

The survey included about 5,000 students from the Carnegie Mellon Facebook 'network' that were involved between 2005 and 2012. The researchers offer various explanations for the differing privacy settings; with the first being the increased information intake. The original article points out that the website has tripled the amount of fields that users can fill out, as well as the addition of the 'timeline' feature for users. Timeline has enabled users to add major life events to their page, ranging from a new car, new baby, relationship to medical surgery. Timeline and its subsequent updates have also allowed friends more ability to 'tag' other users in photos, locations, and status updates. Furthermore, the survey explains that, in 2009, Facebook changed their privacy settings page, making it slightly more complex for users to change particular settings. Researchers explain that people may simply be unaware of how much information is exposed.

In addition to certain information being public on Facebook, it is also public to any third-party applications and advertisers that may be connected with your Facebook page, allowing for personalized ads and exposure.

Original New York Times article is available here.