The Sns User Information Disclosure And Influencing Factors Research

Interpersonal communication and interaction is achieved through the mutual notice and information sharing between the Social Network Service users. Information disclosure to a certain extent becomes the prerequisite for making friends, receiving notice and being commented by others. Meanwhile, personal information helps SNS providers target their users by providing individualized products and service.However, under the internet circumstance, the seemingly win-win deal (information disclosure) brings about more threats and potential dangers to users'privacy security. How personal information disclosure and privacy security can be balanced and what factors the SNS participants will take into consideration become urgent questions to be tackled.In order to answer these questions, this paper has attempted in the following two explorations:(1)A descriptive analysis is conducted on the status quo of personal information disclosure at two main SNS, i.e. QQ.com and weibo.com: personal information of 180 registered users at QQ.com and weibo.com is collected according to the classification of"friends","organization"and a random selection. A statistic method is employed to analyze the information about the users'properties, contact information, work, education and habits in using SNS. And a comparison and contrast is conducted between the data at these two SNS.(2)A model is set up to analyze factors affecting registered users'identification with and adoption of the SNS service providers'information disclosure mechanism, based on TAM and the preceding analysis about the main SNS: A questionnaire is used to investigate the factors affecting users'information disclosure at SNS, namely, Desires of the users, credibility, complexity, user-friendliness, attitude to privacy, perceived usefulness and perceived user-friendliness. Meanwhile, Davis'TAM and TAMII model is employed to find out users'attitude to information technology, the result of which is that the decisive factors are perceived usefulness and perceived accessibility. Davis developed the intervening variables as perceived entertainment, perceived safety, perceived risk, privacy, and self-efficacy. The analysis approach of TAM is incorporated in this affecting factor model, and the means and effect of the influence among the variables are analyzed as well.The following conclusion is made as a result of the study:(1)The function of SNS and the users'attitude to personal information disclosure are two independent variables. Products with stronger function will definitely lead to more disclosure of personal information. But attitude to privacy plays the decisive role in subsequent behaviors.(2)Perceived user-friendliness influence users'behavior indirectly through perceived usefulness. This shows that in SNS products, perceived usefulness has a more direct influence upon users'behavior. Users weigh the function of SNS products heavier, and user-friendliness will only be noticed when their functions are enjoyed.(3)The extent of information disclosure by SNS users for different products differs, as a result of the different functions and operations of the products.(4)Desires of the users, whether it is user-friendly, attitude to privacy, perceived usefulness and perceived user-friendliness are the five variables that affecting the users'willingness to disclose their personal information.Two conclusions about management are reached:(1)Users will not disclose personal information the way designed by SNS service providers;(2)The major affecting factors for SNS information disclosure are: function (useful to users) and privacy (especially about the information users attach importance to ).Based on the above-mentioned managerial conclusions, four suggestions are put forward for SNS service providers:(1)The way to disclose personal information in SNS products should be improved, with different options for different users;(2)The usefulness of SNS products should be improved;(3)Users'privacy should be protected when SNS products are designed and marketed;(4)User-friendliness should be taken into account in the design of the approaches for information disclosure.The conclusion made in this paper has a tentative exploration into the importance of information disclosure in SNS, and therefore has some instructive significance in such practice as e-business management.