Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Second International Conference on E-Learning, E-Education, and Online Training

eLEOT 2015: E-Learning, E-Education, and Online Training pp 182–190Cite as

Students’ Perception of Privacy Risks in Using Social Networking Sites for Learning: A Study of Uganda Christian University

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Abstract

Although social networking sites (SNSs) present a great deal of opportunities to support learning, the privacy risk is perceived by learners as a friction point that affects their full use for learning. Privacy risks in SNSs can be divided into risks that are posed by the SNS provider itself and risks that result from user’s social interactions. Using an online survey questionnaire, this study explored the students’ perception of the benefits in using social networking sites for learning purposes and their perceived privacy risks. A sample of 214 students from Uganda Christian University in Africa was studied. The results show that although 88 % of participants indicated the usefulness of SNSs for learning, they are also aware of the risks associated with these sites. Most of the participants are concerned with privacy risks such as identity theft, cyber bullying, and impersonation that might influence their online learning participation in SNSs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   72.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Gurses, S., Diaz, C.: Two tales of privacy in online social networks. IEEE Secur. Priv. 11(3), 29–37 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Boyd, D., Ellison, N.B.: Social network sites: definition, history, and scholarship. J. Computer-Mediated Commun. 13(1), 23 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Idris, Y., Wang, Q.: Affordances of Facebook for learning. Intl. J. Cont. Eng. Educ. Lifelong Learn. 19(2), 247–255 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. McLoughlin, C., Lee, M.J.: Social software and participatory learning: pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the Web 2.0 era. In: ICT: Providing Choices for Learners and Learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bryant, T.: Social software in academia. Educause Q. 29(2), 61 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Tess, P.A.: The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual) – a literature review. Comput. Hum. Behav. 29(5), A60–A68 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Martin, S., et al.: New technology trends in education: seven years of forecasts and convergence. Comput. Educ. 57(3), 1893–1906 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Van Dijck, J.: ‘You have one identity’: performing the self on Facebook and LinkedIn. Media Cult. Soc. 35(2), 199–215 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Facebook. Statement of Rights and Responsibilities 30 January 2015 [cited 27 March 2015]

    Google Scholar 

  10. Jones, A., Martin, T.: Digital forensics and the issues of identity. Inf. Secur. Tech. Rep. 15(2), 67–71 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Aïmeur, E., Schonfeld, D.: The ultimate invasion of privacy: identity theft. In: 2011 Ninth Annual International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust (PST). IEEE (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Pempek, T.A., Yermolayeva, Y.A., Calvert, S.L.: College students’ social networking experiences on Facebook. J. Appl. Dev. Psychol. 30(3), 227–238 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Price, K.: Web 2.0 and education: what it means for us all. In: Australian Computers in Education Conference (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Richardson, W.: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Thomas, K., Grier, C., Nicol, D.M.: UnFriendly: multi-party privacy risks in social networks. In: Atallah, M.J., Hopper, N.J. (eds.) PETS 2010. LNCS, vol. 6205, pp. 236–252. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Dinev, T., Hart, P.: An extended privacy calculus model for e-commerce transactions. Inf. Syst. Res. 17(1), 61–80 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Debatin, B.: Ethics, privacy, and self-restraint in social networking. Privacy Online, pp. 47–60. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Bonneau, J., Preibusch, S.: The privacy jungle: on the market for data protection in social networks. Economics of Information Security and Privacy, pp. 121–167. Springer, US (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Jones, H., Soltren, J.: Facebook: threats to privacy. In: Project MAC: MIT Project on Mathematics and Computing (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  20. boyd, d., Hargittai, E.: Facebook privacy settings: who cares?. First Monday 15(8) (2010). http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3086/2589. Accessed 5 May 2015

  21. Yang, Y., et al.: Stalking online: on user privacy in social networks. In: Proceedings of the Second ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy. ACM (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Gundecha, P., et al.: User vulnerability and its reduction on a social networking site. ACM Trans. Knowl. Discov. Data (TKDD) 9(2), 12 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Lynch, J.: Identity theft in cyberspace: crime control methods and their effectiveness in combating phishing attacks. Berkeley Tech. Law J. 20, 259 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Campbell, M.A.: Cyber bullying: an old problem in a new guise? Aust. J. Guidance Couns. 15(01), 68–76 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Albrechtslund, A.: Online social networking as participatory surveillance. First Monday 13(3) (2008). http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2142/1949. Accessed 5 May 2015

  26. Tokunaga, R.S.: Social networking site or social surveillance site? Understanding the use of interpersonal electronic surveillance in romantic relationships. Comput. Hum. Behav. 27(2), 705–713 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Lenhart, A., et al.: Social Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults. Pew Internet & American Life Project, Washington D.C. (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Marwick, A.E., boyd, d.: Networked privacy: how teenagers negotiate context in social media. New Media Soc. 16(7), 1051–1067 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Deirmenjian, J.M.: Stalking in cyberspace. J. Am. Acad. Psychiatry Law Online 27(3), 407–413 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Dreßing, H., et al.: Cyberstalking in a large sample of social network users: prevalence, characteristics, and impact upon victims. Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw. 17(2), 61–67 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Besmer, A., Richter Lipford, H.: Moving beyond untagging: photo privacy in a tagged world. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Brandtzæg, P.B., Lüders, M., Skjetne, J.H.: Too many Facebook “friends”? Content sharing and sociability versus the need for privacy in social network sites. Intl. J. Human-Computer Interact. 26(11–12), 1006–1030 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Madejski, M., Johnson, M.L., Bellovin, S.M.: The failure of online social network privacy settings (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Liu, Y., et al.: Analyzing Facebook privacy settings: user expectations vs. reality. In: Proceedings of the 2011 ACM SIGCOMM Conference on Internet Measurement Conference. ACM (2011)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Francis Otto, Nurul Amin Badrul, Shirley Williams & Karsten Øster Lundqvist

Authors
  1. Francis Otto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nurul Amin Badrul
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shirley Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Karsten Øster Lundqvist
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francis Otto .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Baltimore, Baltimore, USA

    Giovanni Vincenti

  2. IBAM - Istituto per i Beni, Italian National Research Council, Roma, Italy

    Alberto Bucciero

  3. Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Carlos Vaz de Carvalho

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

About this paper

Cite this paper

Otto, F., Badrul, N.A., Williams, S., Lundqvist, K.Ø. (2016). Students’ Perception of Privacy Risks in Using Social Networking Sites for Learning: A Study of Uganda Christian University. In: Vincenti, G., Bucciero, A., Vaz de Carvalho, C. (eds) E-Learning, E-Education, and Online Training. eLEOT 2015. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 160. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28883-3_23

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28883-3_23

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28882-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28883-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation