Self-disclosure, Privacy and the Internet

Abstract

This article examines the extant research literature on self-disclosure and the Internet, in particular by focusing on disclosure in computer-mediated communication and web-based forms – both in surveys and in e-commerce applications. It also considers the links between privacy and self-disclosure, and the unique challenges (and opportunities) that the Internet poses for the protection of privacy. Finally, the article proposes three critical issues that unite the ways in which we can best understand the links between privacy, self-disclosure, and new technology: trust and vulnerability, costs and benefits, and control over personal information. Central to the discussion is the notion that self-disclosure is not simply the outcome of a communication encounter: rather, it is both a product and process of interaction, as well as a way of regulating interaction dynamically. By adopting a privacy approach to understanding disclosure online, it becomes possible to consider not only media effects that encourage disclosure, but also the wider context and implications of such communicative behaviours.

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