Fuzzy Facebook privacy boundaries: Exploring mediated lurking, vague-booking, and Facebook privacy management

Computers in Human Behavior 54 (2016) 483e490

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Fuzzy Facebook privacy boundaries: Exploring mediated lurking, vague-booking, and Facebook privacy management Jeffrey T. Child*, Shawn C. Starcher Kent State University, PO Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 1 May 2015 Received in revised form 18 August 2015 Accepted 24 August 2015 Available online xxx

Managing privacy in the interconnected digital interaction environment of Facebook can be a complex yet vital endeavor. This study utilizes the theoretical framework of Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory to explore relationships between concern about mediated lurking, strategic ambiguity (or vague-booking) on Facebook, and Facebook privacy management. The study explores three hypotheses. Overall, 383 participants completed an online survey instrument. Greater concern about mediated lurking was related to more Facebook privacy management. More frequent use of strategic ambiguity on Facebook was related to less Facebook privacy management. Individuals who were more highly concerned about mediated lurking were also more likely to employ more frequent use of strategic ambiguity on Facebook. Men engaged in significantly greater use of strategic ambiguity on Facebook and enacted significantly less Facebook privacy management than did women. Implications and future research related to Facebook privacy management from a CPM perspective are explored. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Disclosure Privacy Communication privacy management (CPM) theory Facebook privacy management Concern about mediated lurking Strategic ambiguity

Human interaction today increasingly includes the use of Facebook and other types of social media to maintain relationships (Webb, Ledbetter, & Norwood, 2015). In particular, Facebook continues to be the most popular social media site (Edison Research, 2012; Facebook, 2015; Nielson, 2011). Facebook notes that by the end of 2014 there were over 1.39 billion active users of the site on a monthly basis, averaging 890 million active users every day (Facebook, 2015). Given the growth in use of Facebook, it is not uncommon for people to engage in mediated interactions on the site with friends, family, acquaintances, romantic interests, teachers, colleagues, businesses, and other types of relationships (Ball, Wazner, & Servoss, 2013; Child & Westermann, 2013; Fife, LaCava, & Nelson, 2013; Frampton & Child, 2013; Pempek, Yermolayeva, & Calvert, 2009). Engaging in effective privacy management in this type of interconnected digital interaction environment can be a complex yet vital endeavor to preventing privacy breakdowns (Child, 2015; Child, Haridakis, & Petronio, 2012; Child & Petronio, 2011). Effective privacy management can be difficult when interacting on Facebook because people's networks are diverse and the privacy

* Corresponding author. Kent State University, School of Communication Studies, PO Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242, USA. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J.T. Child), [email protected] (S.C. Starcher). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.035 0747-5632/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

management practices are often varied for different people based on the relationships, roles, contexts, and the functions of interactions (Child, Duck, Andrews, Butauski, & Petronio, in press, Petronio, 2002). Facebook is a context where both known and unknown audiences can gain access to posted context, increasing the possibility for privacy breakdowns (Child et al., 2012; Child & Petronio, 2011). Further, many people inappropriately assume others understand their privacy expectations versus explicitly coordinating privacy rules with others, which can lead to more breakdowns in effective privacy management (Steuber & McLaren, 2015). This study explores how users maintain an adequate and appropriate level of Facebook privacy management to hopefully prevent breakdowns in effective privacy management from occurring. More specifically, we utilize the theoretical framework of Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory to explore relationships between concern about mediated lurking, strategic ambiguity or vague-booking on Facebook, and Facebook privacy management. 1. Communication privacy management theory and Facebook privacy Private information is defined in CPM theory as any information that makes people feel some level of vulnerability, thereby resulting in the desire to control the further dissemination of that

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information (Petronio, 2002, 2010, 2013). CPM theory proposes that effective management of private information includes considerations of three main principles: privacy ownership, privacy control, and privacy turbulence. These three principles are related to the way people regulate access and protection of their private information (Petronio, 1991, 2010, 2013). CPM asserts that individuals need to both disclose private information to others and, at the same time, protect information from others in order to manage relationships effectively. First, CPM contends that people believe they own their private information, as well as have the right to protect their information and control access to it (Petronio, 2002). The theory illustrates this principle of ownership rights through different types of metaphorical privacy boundaries (Petronio, 2002). Information identified as private and protected resides within an individual privacy boundary. When individuals share private information with others, they grant co-ownership rights to others for the future management and regulation of that private information. Several different criteria aid in decisions made regarding co-ownership rules and regulations. Learned family privacy orientations, individual motivations, and assessments of risk and benefits of disclosure or concealment of information impacts decisions made about coownership (Petronio, 2002, 2010, 2013; Morr Serewicz & Canary, 2008). In the case of Facebook, personal information that an individual protects, and therefore does not share with others on Facebook, for example, remains in his or her own individual privacy boundary. However, when a person posts status updates, photos, allows comments on their own Facebook site or posts comments on another user's posts, these actions convert the information that originally belonged within that person's individual privacy boundary into a co-owned, collective boundary (Child & Petronio, 2011). Sharing or disclosing content with a social media network allows others some level of co-ownership where the original owner gives up some control related to any private information shared within the online privacy boundary for being more social and interactive with others (Bateman, Pike, & Butler, 2011; Child, Petronio, Agyeman-Budu, & Westermann, 2011). By coownership, CPM theory means that others allowed to know the information have a shared sense of responsibility with the original owner for the way it is treated and protected within the privacy boundary (Petronio, 2002, 2013). Second, CPM predicts that individuals control their privacy and make decisions about disclosing or concealing private information through the use of privacy rules (Petronio, 2002). Privacy rules function as a way to regulate the management of both individual privacy boundaries and collective privacy boundaries (Petronio, 1994; Petronio, Jones, & Morr, 2003). At the individual level, people select others to become co-owners of private information based on decision criteria such as cultural expectations, gender, motivational goals, contextual issues, and risk-benefit assessments (Child & Petronio, 2011; Petronio, 2002). Collective privacy boundaries (such as a user's own Facebook page or site) are managed with authorized co-owners through the use of three types of privacy rules: boundary linkage rules; boundary permeability rules; and boundary ownership rules. These types of privacy rules are ideally jointly negotiated among co-owners so co-owners come to rely on the jointly understood privacy rules for the collective privacy boundary rather their own individual privacy rule preferences (Child & Agyeman-Budu, 2010; Child, Pearson, & Petronio, 2009, Petronio, 2002, 2013). Not openly setting privacy rules and establishing acceptable parameters for third-party dissemination increases the probability that there will be breakdowns in regulating the access to information in acceptable ways for the collectivedthe final tenet of CPM theory.

The third tenet of CPM addresses situations of privacy turbulence and privacy breakdowns. Accordingly, people can experience minor disturbances to full breakdowns in the management of their private information online, as well as in face-to-face settings (Petronio, 2013). Often the process of repairing the privacy management system includes: updating, correcting, and recalibrating the adequate functioning of privacy rules (Child et al., 2011; Petronio, 2002, 2013). One way to do this in the context of Facebook is to retrieve private information through deleting previously posted information, essentially asserting greater protection of privacy by reclaiming individual privacy rights (Child et al., 2011, 2012). 1.1. Online privacy management and concern about mediated lurking The creation of a Facebook page establishes a type of collective privacy boundary with the privileged community given access to an individual user's site (Child & Petronio, 2011; Child et al., 2009, 2011). CPM theory argues that the context where interactions occur impact the types of privacy rules that individuals use in managing private information with others (Petronio, 2002, 2013). Facebook is a unique social media interaction context, particularly because many users of the site have experienced context collapse in terms of having various different types of individuals who may not typically interact face-to-face with one another, share and contribute content within an individual's collective Facebook privacy boundary (Child et al., 2009; Child & Petronio, 2011; Child & Westermann, 2013; Frampton & Child, 2013; Webb et al., 2015). An individual user's Facebook site reflects a type of fuzzy privacy boundary as known and unknown individuals may have access to a user's posted content (Petronio, 2002). Known individuals gain such access directly through the actual user. Unknown audiences may have indirect access through that user's friendship associations. CPM theory suggests that effective privacy management depends upon how collectives manage privacy information, which includes the self and other (Child & Petronio, 2011, in press). Concern about others monitoring, scrutiny, and prolonged use of Facebook to try to discover information about another, and perhaps benefit from the type of fuzzy privacy boundary that Facebook creates, reflects the construct of mediated lurking (Trottier, 2012). One reason why individuals use Facebook is because the platform allows for individual surveillance and mediated lurking in a variety of forms, including creeping on others' sites (which involves scrutinizing a person's Facebook profile, photos, posts, and friends); stalking individual pages (through repeatedly accessing and viewing them in a short period of time); and watching what others post and interact online about with interactive Facebook friends from a distance (Lee & Cook, 2015; Trottier, 2012). Mediated lurking is expected by Facebook users, who view it as a necessary trade-off that comes with overall engagement and use of Facebook (Lee & Cook, 2015). Mediated lurking and surveillance occurs more frequently between close friends than it does between acquaintances (McEwan, 2013). Related to others' use of mediated lurking, people worry most about what past, current, and potential future love interests and employers might come to think about them based off of the limited information found about them through mediated lurking (Trottier, 2012). Concern about mediated lurking leads to greater self-scrutiny by a Facebook user of their own posted content (Trottier, 2012), which can reduce privacy breakdowns from occurring on Facebook (Litt & Hargittai, 2014). More frequent use of mediated lurking in romantic relationships is associated with less satisfying and trusting relationships (Tokunaga, 2015). We hypothesize that a user's degree of concern about mediated lurking is related to their Facebook privacy management practices.

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Child et al. (2009) developed a measure to assess how much privacy management an individual engages in within their own collective Facebook privacy boundary. Research supports that individuals with higher levels of both public and private selfconsciousness engage in less Facebook privacy management with others online (Child et al., 2009). Meaning, individuals who spend more time considering what others might think about what they post (public self-consciousness) or engage in more processing of their own individual thoughts (private self-conscious) share more private information with their Facebook networks as perhaps a way to get more feedback about their own processing and thinking about issues (Child et al., 2009). Furthermore, higher self-monitors tend to engage in more Facebook privacy management than individuals with lower self-monitoring skills (Child & AgyemanBudu, 2010). However, little to no research explores concern about mediated lurking and Facebook privacy management. CPM theory and research supports that individual motivations impact privacy rules and Facebook privacy management (Child & Petronio, in press; Child & Westermann, 2013; Petronio, 2013). We argue that concern about mediated lurking is a type of individual motivation according to CPM theory (Petronio, 2002, 2013), and that this variable should predict variation in Facebook privacy management practices. In this study, we control for biological sex differences. CPM theory asserts that biological sex is a type of core influence on privacy rules, meaning it is a more stable and dependable influence on disclosure practices across time (Petronio, 2013). Previous CPMbased research indicates that biological sex impacts privacy management practices in unique ways. For example, women disclose more on Facebook (Hollenbaugh, 2010) and are more concerned about protecting their personal privacy boundaries on Facebook than are men (Child, 2007). Because men and women may consider disclosures differently on Facebook, as predicted by CPM theory (Petronio, 2002, 2013), we control for biological sex differences in each hypothesis. Hypothesis one explores the relationship between concern about mediated lurking and Facebook privacy management practices while controlling for biological sex differences:

& Nussbaum, 2011b). Among parents who have experienced the death of a child, use of strategic ambiguity when discussing the death on Facebook allows for greater face-saving and the protection of sensitive information within the Facebook social network (McBride & Toller, 2011). Vague-booking is a unique form of strategic ambiguity encountered on Facebook. Vague-booking occurs when a post or comment on Facebook is intentionally vague and allows for multiple interpretations. Individuals in a Facebook user's network who encounter the strategically ambiguous message without the context must advance questions in order to uncover the true intentions of the message. Because Facebook is a context where individuals interact with several different types of users on their sites (Child & Petronio, 2011, in press; Child et al., in press), we hypothesize that the use of vague-booking will be related to a user's overall level of Facebook privacy management. Purposely vague posts reflect a strategic approach to privacy management by only allowing certain Facebook audiences to understand the true meaning behind the message. As such, hypothesize two states:

H1. Controlling for biological sex, users who are more concerned about mediated lurking on Facebook will engage in more Facebook privacy management than those users who care less about mediated lurking.

2.1. Participants

1.2. Strategically ambiguous messages (or vague-booking) on Facebook Strategic ambiguity as a communication tactic reflects when a person communicates an intentionally vague message, yet does not deviate from the truth in any way. Strategically ambiguous messages also allow the receiver to attribute multiple meanings to the message (Bavelas, 1983). The importance of the strategically ambiguous message is typically found in what it avoids saying, in comparison to what it actually says (Bavelas, Black, Chovil, & Mullett, 1990). Strategic ambiguity as a strategy is useful in discussions of overly sensitive issues (Rosenfeld, 2000). Strategically ambiguous messages can also help avoid hurt feelings or the revelation of too much sensitive information (Berger, 1997). The ability to interpret a message in multiple ways can cause strain and damage to a relationship (Miller, Joseph, & Apker, 2000). For example, a parent's use of ambiguity during divorce-related stressor conversations has a negative effect on the children's communication satisfaction with the parent (McManus & Nussbaum, 2011a). However, in other research parental use of strategic ambiguity has been found to be unrelated to relational closeness, satisfaction, and communication satisfaction (McManus

H2. Controlling for biological sex, greater use of strategic ambiguity (or vague-booking) practices on Facebook will be related to more Facebook privacy management. Strategic ambiguity reflects a type of privacy protection strategy that may be more appropriate as a response when a user is concerned about mediated lurking. Previous CPM research supports that high self-monitors select privacy management strategies that protect their privacy more (Child & Agyeman-Budu, 2010). We hypothesize that concern about mediated lurking will predict the use of strategic ambiguity (or vague-booking) practices, while also controlling for biological sex: H3. Controlling for biological sex, users who are concerned about mediated lurking on Facebook will engage in greater use of strategic ambiguity (or vague-booking) practices on Facebook. 2. Method

Overall, 383 participants completed an online survey instrument. The average age of participants was approximately 22 years old (M ¼ 22.08; SD ¼ 6.06). From the sample, 254 participants (70%) were female and 108 were male (30%). Additionally, 194 participants (53.6%) lived at home at the time of the study versus being on their own (n ¼ 168, 46.4%). Participants had, on average, two siblings (M ¼ 2.19; SD ¼ 1.65). The majority of participants (n ¼ 277, 76.5%) were raised in a married or other two parent household. The sample was diverse in terms of ethnicity/race with White/Caucasian as the largest proportion of the sample (303 participants, 83.7%). Several questions examined participants’ computer, Internet, and Facebook use. The majority of participants most frequently accessed Facebook from their cellular phone or smart phone device (n ¼ 236, 65.2%) versus using a laptop or desktop computer (n ¼ 117, 32.3%) or some other type of technology used to access Facebook, like an iPad (n ¼ 9, 2.5%). The average participant spent just over an hour and a half the previous day on Facebook (M ¼ 1.32, SD ¼ 1.69) and had been Facebook members for approximately five and a half years (M ¼ 5.52, SD ¼ 1.88). 2.2. Procedures This study employed a purposive, convenience-based sampling approach. To be eligible for the study, participants were required to

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use Facebook. Potential participants were solicited through a large introductory communication course at a medium-sized Midwestern University. The course has a research participation requirement. Students were provided several different opportunities for fulfilling this research requirement in this course throughout the semester. If students did not wish to participate in any research opportunities throughout the semester, they were allowed to complete an alternative assignment near the end of the semester. The introductory communication course is part of the liberal education requirements at the university. As such, a diverse range of students in several different majors enrolled in the course. All participants were provided a brief explanation of the study and a website address (from Qualtrics.com) with which to access the online survey. The survey took approximately 30 min to complete. The study had IRB approval before administration. Participants answered a range of questions about how they interacted and managed privacy on Facebook. The data for this project is part of a larger investigation about Facebook privacy management and family communication. As such, the survey also included questions about if participants were Facebook friends with their siblings, parents, and grandparents and how they interacted and managed their privacy with them through Facebook.

2.3.3. Vague-booking or use of strategic ambiguity on Facebook Participants responded to an adapted version of McManus' (2008) strategic ambiguity measure. We relied on the previous work done with the construct of strategic ambiguity so that the adapted measure would reflect content validity. An exploratory factor analysis demonstrated the adapted items reflected a unidimensional construct overall in the context of Facebook vaguebooking interactions. The questions explored the degree to which a participant felt their own posts and messages on Facebook could be interpreted as overly vague by others. Responses to questions were on a 7-point Likert-type scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” Sample items of the nine-item vague-booking measure include, “It sometimes seems like I try to avoid giving direct responses on Facebook.” and “My Facebook interactions have multiple meanings.” Table 2 contains all statements, means, and standard deviations. Responses to the items were summed and averaged with higher scores indicating that the participant felt their responses and interactions on Facebook could more readily be interpreted as overly ambiguous or vague by some in their Facebook audience. Among current participants, the scale maintained adequate reliability (Cronbach's a ¼ .82, M ¼ 3.37, SD ¼ 1.03). 2.4. Analysis

2.3. Measures 2.3.1. Facebook privacy management measure Participants completed an adapted version of Child et al.’s (2009) 18-item blogging privacy management measure. Responses to the questions were on a 7-point Likert-type scale from “never true” to “always true.” The questions measure how privately to publicly a Facebook user manages disclosures occurring on Facebook with the privileged community given access to their page. The questions capture issues of boundary permeability, boundary linkages, and boundary ownership coordination based on CPM theory (Petronio, 2002). The scale has undergone substantial psychometric testing, demonstrating convergent, predictive, and construct validity (Child, 2007; Child & Agyeman-Budu, 2010; Child et al., 2009). Sample items from the scale include “I often tell intimate, personal things about myself on Facebook without hesitation; ” “I don't discuss certain topics on my Facebook page because I worry who has access; ” and “I try to use Facebook so that other users with similar interests can link to me.” Responses were summed and averaged with higher scores, reflecting more open privacy management practices (Cronbach's a ¼ .73, M ¼ 2.83, SD ¼ 0.72). 2.3.2. Concern about mediated lurking Participants completed a 10-item measure related to how much they thought about surveillance of their own Facebook site by others. The qualitative work of Trottier (2012) guided development of the initial items and word choices for the items so that the measure would reflect content validity. An exploratory factor analysis demonstrated the construct was best as a unidimensional measure. Responses to questions were on a 7-point Likert-type scale from “never true” to “always true.” Sample items include, “I often think about who might be reading what I post and yet not responding” and “I often think about who might be reading my Facebook content and want to go undetected.” Table 1 contains all statements, means, and standard deviations. After reverse-coding the negatively worded items, responses were summed and averaged with higher scores indicating more concern about mediated lurking by the individual. Among current participants, the scale maintained adequate reliability (Cronbach's a ¼ .83, M ¼ 3.86, SD ¼ 1.15).

Two hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test the three hypotheses in two steps. The first hierarchical multiple regression tested hypothesis one and two. The analysis determined whether the addition of concern about mediated lurking and vague-booking practices improved prediction of the degree of Facebook privacy management above the prediction of Facebook privacy management provided by biological sex. In Step 1, biological sex was entered. The variable was dummy coded with males coded as 1 and females coded as 2. In Step 2, concern about mediated lurking and vague-booking practices were entered into the equation. The second hierarchical multiple regression tested hypothesis three. The analysis determined whether the addition of concern about mediated lurking improved prediction of the amount of vague-booking practices above the prediction of vaguebooking practices provided by biological sex. In Step 1, biological sex was entered. In Step 2, concern about mediated lurking was entered into the equation. 3. Results 3.1. Hypothesis one and two Table 3 displays the correlations between the variables, the unstandardized regression coefficients and intercept, the standardized regression coefficients, the semipartial correlations, and R, R2, and adjusted R2 after entry of the independent variables, the overall R ¼ .348, F(3, 358) ¼ 16.44, p < .001. After Step 1, with biological sex entered into the equation, the overall R2 was .096, F(1, 360) ¼ 38.23, p < .001. Biological sex was significantly associated with the amount of Facebook privacy management (b ¼ .31), t(361) ¼ 6.18, p < .01. In particular, men (M ¼ 3.17; SD ¼ .77) engaged in significantly less privacy management overall on Facebook than did women (M ¼ 2.68; SD ¼ 0.66). After Step 2, with concern about mediated lurking and vague-booking practices added into the equation, the overall R2 ¼ .121, DR2 ¼ .025, Finc (2, 358) ¼ 5.12, p < .01. In this final step, both independent predictors of the amount of Facebook privacy management were significant as main effects (after controlling for the effects of biological sex on the dependent variable). Individuals who were more concerned about if other users were engaging in mediated lurking of their Facebook site

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Table 1 Statements, means, and standard deviations for the concern about mediated lurking items. Statements

M

SD

1. I worry about people using Facebook to try to discover more information about me. 2. I often think about who might be reading what I post and yet not responding. 3. I do not give much thought to if people are actively monitoring what I post.* 4. I think about the extent to which people may be creeping on my Facebook page. 5. I worry about who may be engaging in prolonged scrutiny of my Facebook page. 6. I often think about who might be reading my Facebook content and want to go undetected. 7. I often scrutinize what information I post on Facebook. 8. I think about how comfortable I am with the level of exposure my Facebook content might bring. 9. I do not worry about people trying to use Facebook to creep on me.* 10. I do not think about who may be constantly monitoring my Facebook page.*

3.89 3.38 3.94 3.90 3.36 3.53 3.94 4.16 3.99 4.04

1.83 1.87 1.83 1.82 1.76 1.81 1.77 1.78 1.89 1.88

Note.

*

This negatively-worded item was reverse-scored.

Table 2 Statements, means, and standard deviations for the vague-booking on Facebook items. Statements 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

People often need to follow up with me when I interact on Facebook in order to figure out what I mean. I am often vague about what my own thoughts are when interacting on Facebook. It sometimes seems like I try to avoid giving direct responses on Facebook. It is often unclear who I am talking about when I interact on Facebook. My Facebook interactions usually only hint at how I'm feeling about something. I am often vague when expressing my own opinions on Facebook. I am unclear about what statements I agree with when interacting on Facebook. My Facebook messages are evasive. My Facebook interactions have multiple meanings.

M

SD

2.98 3.41 3.59 3.27 3.79 3.79 3.05 2.98 3.43

1.70 1.65 1.69 1.64 1.63 1.72 1.54 1.47 1.50

Table 3 Hierarchical multiple regression of Facebook privacy management after the final step. Variable

Dep. Var.

1

2

3

1. Biological Sex

.310

e

2. Concern about Mediated Lurking 3. Vague-booking Practices Intercept ¼ 3.578 N M SD

.116 .128

.093 .103

e .306

e

382 2.83 0.71

362 e e

374 3.86 1.15

369 3.36 1.03

B

b

.444

.283**

.083 .097

.133** .140**

sr2 .096**

Step 1 Step 2

.025**

Note: R2 ¼ .121, adjusted R2 ¼ .114, R ¼ .348. The sr2 value for a hierarchical multiple regression denotes the increase in unique variance explained with the addition of the added variables above and beyond the unique variance explained from the previous step. * p < .05. **p < .01.

engaged in more Facebook privacy management than those individuals who were less concerned about mediated lurking (b ¼ .13), t(373) ¼ 2.53, p < .01. These effects were significant while controlling for biological sex, supporting hypothesis one. The second independent predictor in this final step, the amount of vague-booking, was also significant as a main effect. In particular, participants who engaged in more vague-booking engaged in less privacy management overall on Facebook (b ¼ .14), t (368) ¼ 2.66, p < .01. These effects were significant while controlling for biological sex. Therefore, hypothesis two was significant but in the opposite direction than predicted. The overall R2 after the second step was .121 (adjusted R2 ¼ .114). 3.2. Hypothesis three Table 4 displays the correlations between the variables, the unstandardized regression coefficients and intercept, the standardized regression coefficients, the semipartial correlations, and R, R2, and adjusted R2 after entry of the independent variables, the overall R ¼ .333, F(2, 359) ¼ 21.28, p < .001. After Step 1, with biological sex entered into the equation, the overall R2 was .011, F(1, 360) ¼ 3.86, p < .05. Biological sex was significantly associated with

the amount of vague-booking (b ¼ .10), t(361) ¼ 1.97, p < .05. In particular, men (M ¼ 3.50; SD ¼ 0.90) engaged in significantly more use of vague-booking practices on Facebook than did women (M ¼ 3.27; SD ¼ 0.91). After Step 2, with concern about mediated lurking added into the equation, the overall R2 ¼ .111, DR2 ¼ .10, Finc (1, 359) ¼ 40.54, p < .01. In this final step, the degree of concern about mediated lurking was associated the amount of vague-booking that an individual engaged in as a main effect (b ¼ .32), t(373) ¼ 6.37, p < .01. In particular, participants who were more concerned about mediated lurking on Facebook engaged in greater use of vague-booking or strategic ambiguity on Facebook. These effects were significant while controlling for biological sex. Therefore, hypothesis three was supported. The overall R2 after the second step was .111 (adjusted R2 ¼ .106). 4. Discussion The goal of this study was to examine how individuals effectively manage their privacy in the interconnected digital interaction environment of Facebook (Child, 2015; Child et al., 2012; Child & Petronio, 2011). We utilized Communication Privacy

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Table 4 Hierarchical multiple regression of vague-booking on Facebook after the final step. Variable

Dependent Variable

1

2

1. Biological Sex

.103

e

2. Concern about Mediated Lurking Intercept ¼ 2.773 N M SD

.306

.093

e

369 3.37 1.03

362 e e

374 3.86 1.15

B

b

.298

.133**

.285

.318**

sr2 .011*

Step 1 Step 2

.100**

Note: R2 ¼ .111, adjusted R2 ¼ .106, R ¼ .333. The sr2 value for a hierarchical multiple regression denotes the increase in unique variance explained with the addition of the added variables above and beyond the unique variance explained from the previous step. * p < .05. **p < .01.

Management (CPM) theory (Petronio, 2002) to advance and test several relationships between Facebook privacy management, concern about mediated lurking, and strategic ambiguity (or vague-booking) practices on Facebook. In particular, the results clarify how users manage their collective Facebook privacy boundary, advancing both expected and unanticipated relationships among variables of interest in the study. As hypothesized, concern about mediated lurking on Facebook predicted both Facebook privacy management practices and use of strategic ambiguity (or vague-booking practices) on Facebook. In particular, when individuals were more concerned about people creeping on their Facebook pages, stalking their Facebook pages, or engaging in prolonged surveillance of their Facebook pages, they protected their Facebook privacy boundary through a range of diverse strategies. First, they upheld a consistently higher level of Facebook privacy management, disclosing less content overall through their Facebook privacy boundary. Furthermore, the individuals also utilized more vague-booking practices as perhaps a way to protect the privacy boundary from such mediated lurking attempts. These findings confirm CPM-based predictions, namely that individual motivations and contextual factors, impact and influence the types of privacy rules that people choose for management of their privacy on Facebook (Petronio, 2002, 2013). When individual users cared more about mediated lurking, they were more protective and cautious in how they managed their privacy on Facebook. They also interacted in ways where coded language was more common. Individuals in such a Facebook network, without a full understanding of the context for a post, would have to ask follow up questions of the user in order to discover the full intent behind what they think the other Facebook user is trying to get across on Facebook in an overly ambiguous fashion. Vague-booking, in this sense, helps people interact more effectively given the diverse relationships today that most Facebook users allow to co-mingle on their own Facebook sites (Ball et al., 2013; Child & Westermann, 2013; Fife et al., 2013; Frampton & Child, 2013; Pempek et al., 2009). Use of vague-booking, for some people, serves as a strategy for effective privacy management by blocking issues and problems from arising through being careful and strategic in online disclosures in order to prevent privacy breakdowns from occurring (Child et al., 2012). Such a strategy, when used sparingly, meets the potential fuzzy privacy boundary created by Facebook through relying more on strategically ambiguous messages. Thus, strategic ambiguity demonstrates positive relationships to privacy like it has in other face-to-face and mediated communication contexts where it has been studied (Berger, 1997; Child & Agyeman-Budu, 2010; McManus, 2008; Rosenfeld, 2000). The relationship between concern about mediated lurking and Facebook privacy management imply that when Facebook users

think more about the diverse network of people who have access to their site and worry about who might be scrutinizing their content, they respond to these concerns by engaging in more privacy protection strategies. These results demonstrate how monitoring privacy goals and needs results in use of different strategies to effectively manage the Facebook privacy boundary as an interconnected system (Child et al., 2012). When an individual user perceives a possible privacy threat, he or she recalibrates privacy rule structures by allowing less disclosure to occur on Facebook overall as perhaps a mechanism for adverting breakdowns in effective privacy management as suggested by CPM theory (Petronio, 2002, 2013). These findings make sense given that many young adults’ Facebook privacy boundaries today include parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, romantic interests, and coworkers (Child & Westermann, 2013; Child et al., in press; Frampton & Child, 2013). Individuals who did not give mediated lurking much thought were less motivated to see use of vague-booking as a necessary strategy to the protection of their Facebook privacy boundary. Conversely, when mediated lurking was more consistently on the mind of an individual user, the overall protection of privacy on Facebook was of higher concern. Child et al. (2012) similarly found that disinhibition and a range of diverse privacy rules orientations motived individual Facebook users’ privacy management choices in unique and different ways. These findings illustrate the usefulness of CPM theory in articulating how catalyst privacy rule influences, such as individual motivations and contextual factors, help explain and predict unique privacy management behaviors that occur for different people not just in face-to-face interactions but also in the types of interactions that get utilized to protect privacy effectively on Facebook (Child & Petronio, 2011; Petronio, 2002, 2013). The results related to strategic ambiguity (or vague-booking) and Facebook privacy management demonstrate counter-intuitive findings. Users who, in general, consistently used more vaguebooking strategies actually engaged in less Facebook privacy management overall. So, while mediated lurking produced more frequent use of vague-booking as a privacy protection strategy, vague-booking can also result in a more disclosive and open Facebook privacy boundary. These findings suggest that it is vital to more fully explore in future research what drives diverse individuals to the use of vague-booking as a Facebook communication strategy. It can be used as a strategy to both protect privacy as well as provide greater access to private information among different types of people on Facebook. The self-centric privacy rule orientation may shed light on these counter-intuitive results. Child et al. (2012) found that one of the motivations that impacts how individual Facebook users set up their privacy rules was advancing a more self-centered focus to use of the social media platform. A self-centered individual may actually use vague-booking as a strategy because they want others in

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their Facebook network to pay more attention to them through asking follow up questions. In this regard, the individual may be drawn to use vague-booking because they actually want to share more information and protect less of their privacy overall, but want others to draw it out of them first and demonstrate that they care to know the private information. If this is consistently employed on Facebook, users may come to see vague-booking as an annoyance, a strain on relationships, and as a ploy for gaining attention. These outcomes may occur by frequently asking the Facebook network to decipher the meanings of posted content and even perhaps apply incorrect meanings for comments posted through vague-booking messages when Facebook users are unwilling or disinterested in asking the types of follow up questions necessary to appropriately understand what is meant by the individual posting an overly vague message on Facebook (Miller et al., 2000). Use of vague-booking as a communication strategy flags to a person's entire Facebook friend network that they are perhaps on the outside looking in regarding whatever issue is being discussed in an overly ambiguous or strategic manner. Such intentional flagging is a more direct privacy management practice versus simply being more private overall or choosing to interact with interested individuals through another medium where less surveillance occurs. Future research might explore the extent to which other Facebook users tune out (or engage) people who consistently rely on vague-booking as a self-centric strategy, where other Facebook friends are expected to draw out more private information from them (Child et al., 2012). When do other users decide that such interactions are annoying?; worthy of saying something directly to the individual about the vague posts?; or constitute an appropriate reason to limit seeing future posts from the individual (by either hiding all posts from the individual or unfriending them)? Research demonstrates that being unfriended on Facebook carries both emotional and cognitive consequences. People experience hurt feelings and become more contemplative in reconstructing what might have gone wrong in the social media relationship (Bevan, Ang, & Fearns, 2014; Bevan, Pfyl, & Barclay, 2012). Finally, results of the current study confirm that biological sex serves as an important core influence on Facebook privacy rules in the same way that it impacts the types of privacy rules that people end up utilizing in face-to-face interactions (Child et al., 2012; Petronio, 2002). In this study, women protected their privacy on Facebook more overall than did men. Therefore, women are more cautious overall in what they allow to be co-owned in the first place by their Facebook privacy boundary, choosing to limit certain types of private information from even being circulated on Facebook. Men, on the other hand, were more willing to enact greater permeability and allow more co-ownership of private information on Facebook. However, while women upheld a higher overall level of privacy management, men more frequently relied on use of vague-booking as a strategy and mechanism for protecting privacy, when needed, than did women. These findings suggest that men and women both care about privacy management on Facebook but end up choosing different strategies, tactics, and direct versus indirect methods overall for accomplishing effective protection of privacy on Facebook. 5. Limitations, future research, and conclusion This study explores communication and privacy management practices on Facebook, primarily through examining the disclosure choices and privacy rules that individuals use when interacting through Facebook. This is consistent with previous CPM research (Child & Agyeman-Budu, 2010; Child & Petronio, 2011; Child et al., 2009, 2011, 2012; Child & Westermann, 2013). Future research

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might also explore if Facebook privacy management and disclosure choices vary based on how much people trust and use the diverse and complex privacy settings and privacy options available to Facebook users. One way to manage privacy is centrally through being cautious in disclosures and rules in the first place and a second method is to trust technology by establishing different groups and then deciding to be more open and disclosive in certain groups while being more closed and private in other groups of friends in a Facebook friendship network overall (Child et al., 2009; Child & Petronio, 2011, in press). More users are purposively selecting a specific individual or group of individuals when interacting on Facebook versus sending messages to their entire friendship networks. Future research might explore the interrelationships between use of privacy settings, privacy options, and privacy protection and disclosure rules on Facebook. This study advances two new privacy-based measures, concern about mediated lurking and vague-booking practices, that deserve further testing through confirmatory factor analysis in future research to demonstrate the predictive, convergent, and divergent validity of the measures. Future research might test how the full range of individual privacy rule orientations relate to vaguebooking, concern about mediated lurking, and ultimately Facebook privacy management (Child et al., 2012). Further testing of these new privacy-based measures can only strengthen their psychometric properties through greater use in research about social media interactions. Furthermore, exploring what drives or motivates Facebook disclosure choices in the first place would expand previous research which uses CPM theory and Uses and Gratifications theory in a complementary manner to understand individual user characteristics, motivations, media-selection choices, and privacy-related outcomes (Child et al., 2012; Haridakis & Hanson, 2009; Rubin, 2009). Such research might also explore a wider range of individual user background characteristics, beyond just biological sex, and how these characteristics influence privacy management practices. Maintenance of critical relationships will increasingly include considerations of how digital interactions occur between people, as technology affordances and preferences change and expand the potential of human communication. However, this research shows how individuals both individually and collectively manage private information and regulate their Facebook privacy boundary when considering things like concern about mediate lurking and use of strategic ambiguity (or vague-booking) on Facebook. CPM theory continues to serve useful as a theoretical framework in advancing a nuanced understanding of social media interaction, disclosure, and privacy management practices in the digital age of communication.

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