Teens unconcerned about third-parties accessing info: study

TORONTO – Teens using social media sites show a lack of concern surrounding third-party applications accessing their personal information, according to a study of online behavior.

The study, released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, found that 31 per cent of teens said they were somewhat concerned about third parties like advertisers or businesses accessing their profile information without their knowledge, while another 60 per cent in total said they were either “not too” concerned or “not at all” concerned.

Only nine per cent of respondents said they were very concerned.

These low numbers raise red flags for privacy experts, as access to third-party data becomes more prevalent within social networks.

Third-party applications access your personal information on your social networking account for a variety of reasons – the main being advertising.

Facebook, for example, allows advertisers to request to use the data from your account to tailor advertisements to your likes and dislikes.

These companies can access everything from your “likes” on Facebook, to your age, marital status and location – even if you have that information set to private on your account.

Third-party apps that connect to social networks for sharing purposes also have access to that information.

Read More: Less Facebook, less drama: Social network waning in popularity among teens

Director at the Privacy and Cyber Crime Institute at Ryerson University Dr. Avner Levin suggested that teens might be preoccupied with what the app might reveal about themselves to their audience on social media, rather than what they are collecting.

“People are concerned in social media over what we call network, or contextual, privacy – they’re concerned over information crossing boundaries that they set up – from friends to parents, from friends to the boss, etc,” said Levin.

“They don’t perceive social media as a ‘database’ that gathers information about them, and it’s difficult for privacy advocates to get the point across that Facebook is a database.”

Levin noted that it appears as if traditional privacy concerns just don’t carry the same traction when translated onto social media.

The study showed that while moving towards more privatized profile settings, teens are sharing more details about themselves through their social media profiles.

According to the data, 20 per cent of teens provide their cellphone number in their profile, 71 per cent include the city they live in, 62 per cent state their relationship status, and 82 per cent post their birth date.

An underlying concern for privacy experts is that it’s hard to determine what third parties are using the information for.

“A lot of information that gets collected through the third-party application ecosystem is often not just for commercial purposes,” said Tamir Israel, staff lawyer at the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC).

Israel noted that some of the information that ends up in third-party profiles can be doled out to other companies.

The online privacy expert noted that because the potential consequences of a company accessing your personal information are not immediate, people don’t weigh the risk when they click ‘ok’.

“Not every app that you add is going to lead to some sort of detrimental consequence, even if they do take a chunk of your information from your profile, it’s an accumulative effect,” said Israel.

But associate professor in the Department of Media and Film at Queen’s University Sidney Matrix believes that because teens know that Facebook is ad-driven they have accepted that their personal information is constantly being traded in return for service.

“Young people know that their personal info is a currency online and they choose to wheel and deal with that,” said Matrix.