Privacy in public networked sites of university students in Malaysia

Abstract

9.4 million Malaysians maintain social network sites profiles (Greyreview, 2009). In March 2009, there were more than one million users of Facebook in Malaysia (Facebook, 2009). A brief survey by Youthsay showed 95 percent of 900 respondents have Friendster’s account, 90% with Facebook and 38% with Twitter (GreyReview, 2009). Popular social network sites in Malaysia are Facebook, YouTube, Friendster and MySpace meanwhile Twitter was the 8th most popular social network in Malaysia (Greyreview, 2009). The popularity of 3G phones contributes to easy access of social network sites to social networkers. The popularity of social media networks is due to their conversational tone as knowledge is effectively shared through a process of discussing, storytelling and collaborative editing. University students consider social network sites to support their existing relationships. This study investigated university students’ participation in social networking sites and their perception of privacy in online social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster etc. Data was collected through survey. The study reveals that Facebook and MySpace are two most popular social network sites and the respondents believe that their chosen networking sites provide adequate protection regarding their personal relationships, financial information and religious or political beliefs.