Selbstoffenbarung im Social Web

The social web is based on active participation of users generating their own content and disclosing private information online. From the users?? perspective, however, the availability of private information on the web is risky and considerably compromises their privacy. The discussion of this issue is affected by the assumption that social web users do in fact disclose a great deal of personal information. So far, however, there is no representative data on this for the social web at large. For the first time, this paper introduces an internet-representative survey on self-disclosure in the social web. As findings show, the social web actually does encourage the provision of personal information. A number of factors influencing self-disclosure are investigated, analyzing the so-called ??privacy paradox??, the contradiction between attitudes towards privacy and actual behavior, which is shown in this paper as also existing on a behavioral level (??privacy behavior paradox??). Other factors influencing self-disclosure behavior were investigated: education, internet experience, extent of social web use, as well as gender and age. Results indicate that notably young users, who focus on particular social web applications, tend to reveal many personal details. Besides, a slight correlation of self-disclosure with education and internet experience could be detected.