Data privacy management behaviour of social media users in South Africa

Abstract

Privacy at its core is the right to be let alone and ascribes the breach thereof to constitute a crime with the potential award of damages to the victim. In South Africa, the Bill of Rights within the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, affords privacy protection to every person. The South African population, which amounted to 62,027,503 people in the census conducted in 2022, represents diverse groups and unique communities speaking a multitude of languages. Smartphone and telecommunications industries continually experience rampant growth, thereby lowering costs and removing barriers to entry. This extends the capability of accessing the internet beyond traditional personal computers. The convenience of access to mobile devices coupled with the social value aspect of social media platforms function as a significant driver in the popularity of the platforms for South African social media users. The South African social media user population is estimated at twenty-six (26) million users as of January 2024. The rapid proliferation of innovative technologies has further intensified privacy concerns due to new opportunities for surveillance, tracking, detection and watching people. The Cambridge Analytica privacy breach included the Facebook personal information of eighty seven (87) million users used to profile and tailor advertisements to solicit votes for the intended political candidate. Similarly, several social media platforms may be subject to similar risks and practices. Data breaches are an eventuality that must be pre-empted by both private and public organisations through the stringent implementation of information security measures and awareness programmes for staff and clients. Stolen personal information can be used for identity theft and fraudulent financial transactions, resulting in personal losses, reputational harm and bad credit ratings for many people. The data privacy behaviour of individuals exposes them as prime candidates for data theft and breach. Their level of exposure links to their data privacy decisions. The privacy paradox relates to disparate behaviour exhibited by users for their general privacy compared to their social media data privacy practice. Moreover, erratic privacy practice is the result of dissimilarities in demography, technical aptitude, general usage and the need for social recognition. Social media users’ attitudes toward data privacy may impact their data privacy practices. Al-Rabeeah and Saeed’s combined theory contends that Communication Privacy Management (CPM) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) pertain to privacy decisions influenced by the user’s cultural influences. The authors believe that embedded culture and beliefs have the potential to affect users' behaviour. The research problem relates to social computing and human-computer interaction (HCI) within the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. Examining the human aspect of the data privacy management behaviour of social media users may provide critical insight into the potential for privacy breaches and vulnerability to malicious attacks. An improved understanding of data privacy behaviour has the potential to yield results that could aid data privacy education and prevention efforts. Research involving CPM and TPB in the social media context is sparse and deserves attention. Several studies have been conducted on this problem globally. However, very few studies were in the South African context. In light of these facts, the researcher believes that there is research value in understanding the data privacy management behaviour of adult social media users in South Africa. The study is a mono qualitative interpretivist study. The purpose of this study is to better understand the data privacy management behaviour of adult social media users residing in South Africa, specifically what factors inform the decisions that users make. The aim of the study was to determine the data privacy behaviour of adult social media users residing in South Africa. The researcher explored the reasons for the behaviour to contribute to the design of future data privacy awareness initiatives, identify potential data privacy threats and inform incremental information security improvement of social media platforms. The study recruited participants through social media platforms to participate in a survey and garnered responses from ninety-five (95) respondents. The data analysis employed in the study consisted of thematic analysis. The researcher used the collected data to reveal any themes or patterns that could be interpreted.