Privacy paradox on geotagging

Abstract

Nowadays, social media applications are embedded with geotag features, and users share their experiences of places with other people online to express themselves. Users post their text messages, photos and videos online and geotag them to share the location of the undertaken activity. Geotag features enhance the user experience, but also introduce privacy related threats and issues. Social media users place themselves at a greater risk for identity theft or cyber stalking by disclosing their whereabouts online. Academic literature suggests social media users are concerned about their online and location privacy, and also have a cautious attitude towards sharing personal and location information. However, users keep sharing their location information with fellow users and application services despite their concerns. This dichotomy between concern and disclosure behaviour is known as privacy paradox.

This thesis investigates if privacy paradox applies to geotagging behaviour on social media. With the help of an online survey, 184 social media users are questioned about their geotagging activities, their attitude towards re-use of location information and the accessibility of their location information by fellow users. In addition, their concerns regarding location privacy are also examined.