Social login privacy alert: Does it improve privacy awareness of facebook users?

Abstract

Social login (SL) allows web application providers to obtain authentication service from social network providers for users who own the social network accounts. By approving a consent dialogue, users are granted access to the web applications when login using the SL. It also allows web application providers to access personal information that is associated with the users' social network credentials (SNC). This can be a source to privacy leakage if the users simply approve the consent dialogue without understanding the contents. Therefore, this research intends to explore users' privacy awareness when they login to web applications using SL for the first time particularly using Facebook SNC. An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effects of SL permission messages on users' privacy awareness. The results suggested that the permission message with privacy alert has significantly increased the participants' awareness on the privacy of their personal information obtained through SNC. The outcome of this study provides an opportunity as a guide to increase users' awareness on the privacy of their personal information obtained from SNC.