Social media surveillance: a personality-driven behaviour model

Background: The use of third-party Facebook apps have become a common occurrence. However, this leads to problems such as information misuse, because many Facebook apps are able to build accurate behavioural and usage profiles which users are unaware of.

Objectives: The aim of this article was to develop a research model that could be used to evaluate the influence of awareness and personality on the intent to use third-party Facebook apps.

Method: In this article, we took a qualitative approach to code awareness and personality related literature using Atlas.ti software. After reviewing the codes, propositions were created and integrated into an adapted version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour.

Results: The study found that it is likely that individuals’ personality type will influence their intent to use third-party Facebook apps. It also found evidence to suggest that awareness of social media surveillance will influence a user’s intent to use third-party Facebook apps. Based on the review, the article proposes the use of an adapted version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour by incorporating information security awareness of social media surveillance.

Conclusion: Although social media surveillance is commonplace, much of it is conducted for commercial purposes without users being aware thereof. This article concludes that it is possible to determine a Facebook user’s susceptibility to social media surveillance via third-party apps by evaluating the combined influence of personality type and awareness.