"I just want to play games with friends and it asked me for all of my information": Trading privacy for connection during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

We conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with participants in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when restrictions were in effect, to learn about social media users' privacy behaviors and what influenced changes in behavior since the beginning of the pandemic. We found that participants felt pressured to stay "relevant"online, which led to increased consumption and sharing of content, as well as increased re-posting of older content. Participants also noted increased disclosure of negative emotional states and that they were expected to publicly display their stance in regards to social movements. Participants felt increasingly reliant on social media as a means of connection which led them to download and install additional social apps despite privacy concerns. Each of these activities has potential privacy implications in terms of explicit data sharing and in terms of increased sources of information for online behavioral tracking and profiling. © 2022 ACM.