When SNS Privacy Settings Become Granular: Investigating Users’ Choices, Rationales, and Influences on Their Social Experience

Privacy researchers have suggested various granular audience control techniques for users to manage the access to their disclosed information on social network sites. However, it is unclear how users adopt and utilize such techniques in daily use and how these techniques may impact social interactions with others over time. In this study, we examine users’ experience during everyday use of granular audience control techniques in WeChat, one of the most popular social network applications in China. Through an interview study with 24 WeChat users, we find that users adjust their configurations and develop rationales for these configurations over time. They also perceive mixed impacts of WeChat's privacy settings on their information disclosure and social interactions, which brings new challenges to privacy design. We discuss the implications of these findings and make suggestions for the future design of privacy settings in SNSs.