Who’s my audience again? How users perceive and manage their audience on online social networks

Invisible audiences on online social networks can cause privacy problems. Although various privacy settings for managing audiences are available, we argue that these do not always match the users needs and expectations. The present study examines the different strategies young adults apply when categorizing others, using card sorting as a research method. A total of 18 participants, with boys (n=10) and girls (n=8), participated in the card sorting session. The obtained data revealed 5 different strategies. Especially, the shared community strategy was used, where friends were categorized based on the communities the participant had in common with them. Implications for privacy management technologies are discussed.