What tempts you to reveal private details online

Online privacy

No matter how much people talk about online privacy, a recent experiment has revealed that people fail to follow up on it in real life. In practice, users readily divulge private information online.

What causes reveal

A team of Penn State researchers identified a dozen subtle reasons that may make people reveal information online.

Revealing too much

“Most people will tell you that they take online precautions. But, in reality, they tend to reveal all too much. What we think is going on is that people make disclosures in the heat of the moment by falling for contextual cues that appear on an interface,” said S Shyam Sundar, co-director of the Media Effects Research Lab in the Donald P Bellisario College of Communications, US.