Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data
The article examines whether and how the ever-evolving practice of using social media to screen job applicants may undermine people’s trust in the organizations that are engaging in this practice. Using a survey of 429 participants, we assess whether their comfort level with cybervetting can be expl...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2020-04-01
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| Series: | Social Media + Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120915618 |
| _version_ | 1818297305956089856 |
|---|---|
| author | Anatoliy Gruzd Jenna Jacobson Elizabeth Dubois |
| author_facet | Anatoliy Gruzd Jenna Jacobson Elizabeth Dubois |
| author_sort | Anatoliy Gruzd |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The article examines whether and how the ever-evolving practice of using social media to screen job applicants may undermine people’s trust in the organizations that are engaging in this practice. Using a survey of 429 participants, we assess whether their comfort level with cybervetting can be explained by the factors outlined by Petronio’s communication privacy management theory: culture, gender, motivation, and risk-benefit ratio. We find that respondents from India are significantly more comfortable with social media screening than those living in the United States. We did not find any gender-based differences in individuals’ comfort with social media screening, which suggests that there may be some consistent set of norms, expectations, or “privacy rules” that apply in the context of employment seeking—irrespective of gender. As a theoretical contribution, we apply the communication privacy management theory to analyze information that is publicly available, which offers a unique extension of the theory that focuses on private information. Importantly, the research suggests that privacy boundaries are not only important when it comes to private information, but also with information that is publicly available on social media. The research identifies that just because social media data are public, does not mean people do not have context-specific and data-specific expectations of privacy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T04:17:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dbd6f0acd3824f0590a83160bc64b754 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-3051 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T04:17:20Z |
| publishDate | 2020-04-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Media + Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-dbd6f0acd3824f0590a83160bc64b7542022-12-21T23:59:51ZengSAGE PublishingSocial Media + Society2056-30512020-04-01610.1177/2056305120915618Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media DataAnatoliy Gruzd0Jenna Jacobson1Elizabeth Dubois2Ryerson University, CanadaRyerson University, CanadaUniversity of Ottawa, CanadaThe article examines whether and how the ever-evolving practice of using social media to screen job applicants may undermine people’s trust in the organizations that are engaging in this practice. Using a survey of 429 participants, we assess whether their comfort level with cybervetting can be explained by the factors outlined by Petronio’s communication privacy management theory: culture, gender, motivation, and risk-benefit ratio. We find that respondents from India are significantly more comfortable with social media screening than those living in the United States. We did not find any gender-based differences in individuals’ comfort with social media screening, which suggests that there may be some consistent set of norms, expectations, or “privacy rules” that apply in the context of employment seeking—irrespective of gender. As a theoretical contribution, we apply the communication privacy management theory to analyze information that is publicly available, which offers a unique extension of the theory that focuses on private information. Importantly, the research suggests that privacy boundaries are not only important when it comes to private information, but also with information that is publicly available on social media. The research identifies that just because social media data are public, does not mean people do not have context-specific and data-specific expectations of privacy.https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120915618 |
| spellingShingle | Anatoliy Gruzd Jenna Jacobson Elizabeth Dubois Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data Social Media + Society |
| title | Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data |
| title_full | Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data |
| title_fullStr | Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data |
| title_short | Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data |
| title_sort | cybervetting and the public life of social media data |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120915618 |
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