While most respondents use the ‘friends only’ privacy option on Facebook, one of the
tightest control options on the social networking site, the majority of respondents still
have between 200 and 300 Facebook friends, which is above the average Facebook user’s
130 friends (Facebook, 2010). Facebook users also have many different classifications of
‘friends’ on Facebook. These findings suggest Facebook users are concerned with privacy
and are using strict settings yet still disclose information to, as Debatin et al. (2009: 102)
describe, ‘a loosely defined group’. While over half of Facebook users are confident their
current settings meet their desired protection, over one-quarter remain unsure, showing a
level of misunderstanding or confusion relating to the privacy controls which exist on the
social networking site (Acquisti and Gross, 2006). A proportion of Facebook users (over
one-fifth) have not changed their privacy settings, because they do not see the need to
change their settings; the majority of these users are aged 18–21. This finding concurs with
Barnes (2006), who claims younger users are more willing to disclose information on social
networking sites and are often oblivious to potential risks.