ABSTRACT: Online social communities (OSC) enable users to communicate and thereby exchange personal information on the Internet in front of a potentially large but invisible audience. This potential audience offers opportunities, e.g., getting in contact with other people, discussing interesting topics or receiving ratification from self-presentation. However, making personal information publicly available on the Internet also implies privacy risks. To control these risks, users need to be aware to whom they disclose what data. The talk introduces the concept of privacy awareness information in OSC based on theories from media impact studies and decision making. It summarizes three empirical studies that investigate whether privacy awareness information affect users' privacy awareness and their actual behavior regarding the disclosure of personal information. The talk concludes with general guidelines on how to support users's privacy awareness in OSC.

SPEAKER: Stefanie Pötzsch received her diploma degree in Media Computer Science and a doctoral degree in Computer Science from Technische Universität Dresden in 2007 and 2012, respectively. As a research assistant and Ph.D. student at Technische Universität Dresden she was part of different European research projects in the field of data privacy and user behavior. Since 2011 she works for DATEV eG.