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i am becoming more and more cautious about my privacy by the day. most of my online profiles are now visible to friends only (where possible) and i have even gone the extra step and de-registered from some sites that i signed up for just so i could review them. but it’s not me that i’m worried about, it’s the kids!

original photo: shapeshift

a new study from pace university contradicts the data from an emedia survey and a pew internet & american life project study by reaching the exact opposite conclusion. the study states that myspace and facebook users are willing to allow the sites to sell their personal data or have it otherwise compromised in exchange for social networking functionality.

catherine dwyer, a professor at pace who worked on the study, noted that most facebook and myspace users said that they’re willing to develop online relationships even though they believe that trust and privacy safeguards are weak.

users seem to view the social networking sites as a way to get online profiles, photos and the like for free while the sites “can take all their data and do whatever they want with it,” she noted.

at this point the data so strongly contradicts the previously mentioned studies that i have to question the methods used in each. according to the pace study survey, even though less than 5% of myspace users and a little more than 5% of facebook users believe that their personal information on the sites is protected, over 85% of users from both sites are willing to share their photos, and 91% of facebook users and 62% of myspace users said that they would use their actual name on the sites (the emedia study, on the other hand, pointed out that over one third of social networkers used falsified information online).

if this data is accurate, then our preconceptions about myspace users’ disregard for online safety (versus facebook users’ attitude) are reversed. on the contrary, we see that though both sites’ users are quite careless, myspace users are less so.

Technorati Tags: facebook, myspace, social networking, privacy, emedia, pew, pace