Cyber Crime and Cyber Terrorism

203
 
Features of social media users and use
Technical setup
. Site features, such as the ability to set status messages, send 
private correspondence or provide public feedback to other users' content strongly 
influences how people behave as well as the type of information they choose to re-
veal online (
Skog, 2005
). In addition 
Hampton et al. (2010)
 identified that not only 
physical features of social networks impact user behaviors, but also the social set-
ting in which the users are conducting their interactions, with users commonly using 
online networks in order to maintain existing networks when using social networks 
in a social environment. Further, power users (i.e., highly expert technophiles) rate 
the quality of content higher when it has a customizable interface, while non-power 
users tend to prefer personalized content (
Sundar and Marathe, 2010
).
DISCLOSURE AND TRUSTWORTHINESS OF INFORMATION
A great deal of discussion exists around the question of whether information pro-
vided online is trustworthy. Do users report who they really are or do they con-
sciously fake and falsify information? Teens, for instance, often provide false 
information on purpose in their profiles (Lenhart et al., 2013). It is also common 
that users consciously include or omit personal information such as age or relation-
ship status to achieve an interesting, “well-rounded” personality (
Peluchette and 
Karl, 2010; Zhao et al., 2008
).
Generally, women are more risk aware and risk adverse when it comes to di-
vulging information online than men (Fogal and Nehmad, 2009; 
Hoy and Milne, 
2011
). Yet, privacy concerns often fail to lead to more privacy-oriented behavior (the 
so-called privacy paradox; 
Barnes, 2006
). Aspects such as the social relevance of a 
network in influencing a user's general willingness to disclose personal information 
seem to be more prevalent when deciding whether personal information is posted 
publicly or not: the higher the relevance of a network for maintaining social relation-
ships, the stronger a person's generalized willingness to reveal private information 
is (
Taddicken, 2013
). Individuals also tend to disclose more information in blog en-
tries, when they are more visually identifiable (i.e., share a picture of themselves) 
(
Hollenbaugh and Everett, 2013
); while people with higher levels of privacy con-
cerns tend to use fewer social media applications (
Taddicken, 2013
).
Users concerned about their privacy may choose three approaches to mitigate pos-
sible risks: avoidance (e.g., choosing ways other than the internet to communicate, 
buy products, etc.), opt-out (e.g., opt-out of third-party collection of information), 
and proactive self-protection (e.g., using privacy-enhancing technologies, erasing 
cookies, etc.). The choice of the method seems to be influenced by cultural factors. 
For example, in Sydney and New York users were unlikely to choose an avoidance 
strategy, while users in Bangalore or Seoul were more likely to avoid the internet 
than employ privacy-enhancing technologies (
Cho et al., 2009
). Attitudes toward 
privacy seem to differ along a North-South and South-East divide, at least in Europe 
(cp. 
Lancelot-Miltgen and Peyrat-Guillard, 2013
): Users in Northern European 
countries considered privacy as a question of personal responsibility, whereas users 
in the South saw it rather as a question of trust. Users in South-European countries 

---