Web 2.0 and Consumers’ Digital Footprint: Managing Privacy and Disclosure Choices in Social Media

In the modern marketplace, personal information is readily and widely available through the Internet, just as easily as stock prices are available in The Wall Street Journal. In a world of noisy self-confessions, evolving technology, and Web 2.0 tools (e.g., social networking, microblogging) that make it easy to divulge life stories, disclosure choices offer a means to keep personal information private, or not (Milne & Bahl, 2010; Poddar, Mosteller, & Scholder-Ellen, 2009). The aggregation of disclosed information creates a digital footprint or profile of personal information, accessible online to a wide spectrum of people (Madden, Fox, Smith, & Vitak, 2007). Such footprints are common; a recent study shows that 47% of adults use social networking sites (Pew Research Center, 2010). Accordingly, mounting participation in blogs and social networks creates new privacy issues related to digital profiles in the marketplace. Privacy settings may allow members to restrict others’ access to their online profiles, yet unauthorized viewers, employers, and third-party applications clearly gain access to those profiles (Miyazaki, 2008). For example, U.S. employers activelytrawl potential candidates’ private Facebook profiles without their consent before making hiring decisions (Careerbuilder.com, 2009), and in Germany, a proposed law would prevent employers from becoming Facebook friends with prospective employees and make it illegal to check applicants’ private online profiles (Roschmann-Schmitt, 2010).