The social networking sites in people’s daily lives have transformed the way users communicate and

share information. Social media plays an essential role in the modern society, enabling people to be
connected to each other. This study describes perception and awareness of social media users
towards data privacy on social networking sites. Social networks have become a part of human life.
While enjoying the information sharing on social media, yet it requires a great deal for security and
privacy. Social media users are not just the source of information, they are also the targets. They
leave digital footprints during their visits to various websites and applications, where privacy
breaches and identity theft cases are increasing. Users are vulnerable to privacy breaches. The
sharing of personal details such as gender, age, location and other personal information such as
personal and family photographs can assist in creating identity that can be stolen and used by the
attacker. Social networking sites have a variety of applications that make them attractive to broad
audience. Facebook has made it possible for individuals to meet online and has grown tremendously
in recent years. Facebook offers an effortless way to rapidly correspond with friends. There are
problems social networking can introduce, such as addiction, privacy and security issues. Social
networking sites collect vast amount of information. To join a site, individuals sign up as a member;
this process may include providing personal information such as email id, age, address. A profile
contains the information that an individual chooses to share within a social networking site. Most
profiles provide users with an option of hometown, physical address and email address and phone
numbers. The privacy concerns and awareness did not stop users from revealing large amount of
personal information.

The main objective of this study is to investigate privacy issues on social networking sites. Failing to
protect private and personal information affects everyone: friends, family, co-workers, relatives and
many others. I decided to investigate this topic driven by the curiosity of understanding people’s
behaviour in relation to social media.