Empowering users regarding the sensitivity of their data in social networks through nudge mechanisms

The use of online social networks (OSNs) is a continuous trade-off between relinquishing some privacy in exchange for getting some social benefits like maintaining (or creating new) relationships, getting support, influencing others’ opinions, etc. OSN users are faced with this decision each time they share information. The amount of information or its sensitivity is directly related to the amount of users’ loss of privacy. Currently, there are several approaches for assessing the sensitivity of the information based on the willingness of users to provide them, the monetary benefits derived from extracting knowledge of them, the amount of information they provide, etc. In this work, we focus on quantifying data sensitivity as the combination of all of the approaches and adapting them to the OSN domain. Furthermore, we propose a way of scoring publication sensitivity as the accumulative value of the sensitivity of the information types included in it. Finally, an experiment with 196 teenagers was carried out to assess the effectiveness of empowering users regarding the sensitivity of the publication. The results show a significant effect on users’ privacy behavior by the nudge message and the sensitivity included in it