A cross-cultural framework for protecting user privacy in online social media

Social media has become truly global in recent years. We argue that support for users ’ privacy, however, has not been extended equally to all users from around the world. In this paper, we survey existing literature on cross-cultural privacy issues, giving particular weight to work specific to online social networking sites. We then propose a framework for evaluating the extent to which social networking sites ’ privacy options are offered and communicated in a manner that supports diverse users from around the world. One aspect of our framework focuses on cultural issues, such as norms regarding the use of pseudonyms or posting of photographs. A second aspect of our framework discusses legal issues in cross-cultural privacy, including data-protection requirements and questions of jurisdic-tion. The final part of our framework delves into user expectations regarding the data-sharing practices and the communication of pri-vacy information. The framework can enable service providers to identify potential gaps in support for user privacy. It can also help researchers, regulators, or consumer advocates reason systemati-cally about cultural differences related to privacy in social media