While selective elements of this FAQ were updated in 2012, the information below is generally current as of June 2008. Specific company practices may have since changed.

This F.A.Q. was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

FAQs

Resources

Government Information

Canada

Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, "How to Protect Your Privacy on Facebook" (2008)

Privacy Commissioner of Canada, "Privacy and Social Networks" (Video)

Privacy Commissioner of Canada, "Online privacy and identity: A regulatory body's perspective" (Powerpoint, 2008)

 

United States of America

On Guard Online, Federal Government of the United States of America,

"Social Networking Sites: A Parent's Guide" (2007)

Europe

Digizen, "Social Networking Overview" supported by Becta, the UK Government's lead agency for information and communications technology (ICT)

Digizen, "Social Networking Evaluation Chart" (2008)

European Network and Information Security Agency (ENSIA), Position Paper No. 1: "Security Issues and Recommendations for Online Social Networks" (2007), Edited by Giles Hogben.

Office of Communications, U.K., "Social Networking: A quantitative and qualitative research report into attitudes, behaviours and use" (2008)

International

International Working Group on Data Protection in Telecommunications, "Report and Guidance on Privacy in Social Network Services - Rome Memorandum," (2008)

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - Canada Forum on the Participative Web: Strategies and Policies for the Future (Home), "Participative Web and User-Created Content: Web 2.0, Wikis and Social Networking"

Information from Profit and Non-Profit Organizations

Adam Thierer, The Progress & Freedom Foundation, "Social Networking and Age Verification: Many Hard Questions; No Easy Solutions" (2007)

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), "Social Networking Privacy"

Internet Solutions for Kids Inc., "Prevent CyberBullying & Internet Harassment

PEW Internet & American Life Project, "Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview"

PEW Internet & American Life Project, "Teens and Social Media: The use of social media gains a greater foothold in teen life as they embrace the conversational nature of interactive online media" (2007)

Sophos, "Facebook best practice: Sophos recommended privacy settings for Facebook  

Academic Research

Special Themed Issue: Social Network Sites, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communicated, Vol 13, Issue 1 (Oct 07)

Ralph Gross & Alessandro Acquisti, "Information Revelation and Privacy in Online Social Networks (The Facebook case)" (2005) ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES).

Shanyang Zhao, Sherri Grasmuck, & Jason Martin, "Identity construction on Facebook:Digital empowerment in anchored relationships" (2008)

Meg Kribble & Debbie Ginsberg, "The Social Networking Titans: Facebook and Myspace" (2008) Law and technology resources for legal professionals, LLRX.COM

danah boyd, "Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life" (2007)

danah boyd, "Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace" (2007)

Susan Barnes, "A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States"(2006)

C. Dwyer, S.R. Hiltz, & K. Passerini, "Trust and privacy concerns with social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace," Proceedings of AMCIS 2007 (2007)

For a more extensive bibliography of the academic work in this area, see danah boyd's (2008)"Research on Social Network Sites"

Statistics

comScore, "Social Networking Goes Global: Major Social Networking Sites Substantially ExpandedTheir Global Visitor Base during Past Year" (2007)

Facebook, "Statistics"

Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA), Online Harassment/Cyberstalking Statistics "Comparison Statistics 2000-2007"