Following on from the recent fallout from the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook controversy, the market research company iReach conducted a survey of Irish users to see what they make of it and to see how they protect themselves online.
The nationally representative survey of 1,000 adults shows that 66% of people in Ireland have a Facebook account but 80% of Facebook users in Ireland think that people are not fully aware of the extent of damage that posting online can have. Some 55% of users in Ireland think there should be more restrictions and policies put in place on social media platforms. Again, more females (61%) than males (48%) are concerned about this issue. In addition, 24% are unsure of what policies are in place now.
The survey also shows that 16% of Facebook users have their settings set to completely private, 66% have them set to private, 13% have them set to public and 5% don’t know. More female Facebook users than male Facebook users are concerned about their privacy setting being private. This is borne out by the fact that 89% of female users have their settings on completely private or private, compared with 72% of male users.
When it comes to the content of what is posted on these social media platforms, who does the responsibility lie with? Although 63% of Facebook Users think that the responsibility lies with the individuals who post on the social media platform, 61% also think that is the social media platforms responsibility for the content that is posted.
