Relations between Privacy Behaviors and Social Capital on Facebook

Based on the premises of Social Exchange theory, we set out to explore the nature of the relationships between users' privacy behaviors and social capital on Facebook to determine whether decreasing user privacy contributes to achieving more social capital and, if so, how that mechanism of exchange works. The research was conducted with 140 Israeli Facebook users via questionnaires. A quantitative analysis employing the statistical package SPSS was carried out. Four privacy behaviors were measured, reflecting users' privacy "investments": friend selectivity, number of friends, privacy control settings and personal information exposure. User benefit from the network was assessed using two variables: bonding and bridging social capital. Privacy was found to be associated with social capital in a complex way which includes mediation effects, supporting the concept of balance and regulation between privacy behaviors. Privacy has some sway over the creation of social capital in online social networks, as part of a complex model of balance and adjustment. This study's results suggest possible future applications by online social network designers and users.