Privacy Perceptions of Ephemeral Social Networking Services: Instagram and Snapchat

Abstract

Instagram and Snapchat are among the most popular social networking services (SNSs), both of which offer ephemeral Stories that are only available for a limited time. An important aspect of privacy is the privacy paradox, a phenomenon in which users take actions that are inconsistent with their stated privacy concerns. The current study investigated the privacy paradox in the context of ephemeral Stories on Instagram and Snapchat, using a semi-structured interview and a survey. The interview included questions about users’ knowledge and use of privacy settings on Instagram Stories and Snapchat Stories. Overall, participants did not express privacy concerns and felt secure with the settings enabled. Additionally, the privacy paradox was not observed in this context, suggesting that users were comfortable with ephemeral functions because of their non-permanence. Future studies can further investigate the design of platform interfaces to determine whether SNS’s usability influences the awareness of different privacy settings.