The problem of user privacy enforcement in online social networks (OSN) cannot be ignored and, in recent years, Facebook and other providers have improved considerably their privacy protection tools. However, in OSN’s the most powerful data protection “weapons” are the users themselves. The behavior of an individual acting in an OSN highly depends on her level of privacy attitude: an aware user tends not to share her private information, or the private information of her friends, while an unaware user could not recognize some information as private, and could share it without care to her contacts. In this paper, we experimentally study the role of the attitude on privacy of an individual and her friends on information propagation in social networks. We model information diffusion by means of an extension of the Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) epidemic model that takes into account the privacy attitude of users. We employ this diffusion model in stochastic simulations on a synthetic social network, designed for miming the characteristics of the Facebook social graph.

Impact of Neighbors on the Privacy of Individuals in Online Social Networks

BIOGLIO, LIVIO;PENSA, Ruggero Gaetano
2017-01-01

Abstract

The problem of user privacy enforcement in online social networks (OSN) cannot be ignored and, in recent years, Facebook and other providers have improved considerably their privacy protection tools. However, in OSN’s the most powerful data protection “weapons” are the users themselves. The behavior of an individual acting in an OSN highly depends on her level of privacy attitude: an aware user tends not to share her private information, or the private information of her friends, while an unaware user could not recognize some information as private, and could share it without care to her contacts. In this paper, we experimentally study the role of the attitude on privacy of an individual and her friends on information propagation in social networks. We model information diffusion by means of an extension of the Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) epidemic model that takes into account the privacy attitude of users. We employ this diffusion model in stochastic simulations on a synthetic social network, designed for miming the characteristics of the Facebook social graph.
2017
International Conference on Computational Science, ICCS 2017
Zurich, Switzerland
12-14 June 2017
108
28
37
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/18770509
complex networks, modeling, information diffusion, privacy
Bioglio, Livio; Pensa, Ruggero G.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1641483
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