Perceptions of Privacy and Security in the Online Dating Context

Jennifer L. Gibbs, Rutgers University*

This study addresses the research question of how online dating participants manage and control their identities online, which involves disclosing enough personal information to form 
relationships with others yet not too much to put their privacy and security at risk. Through a nationwide survey of 562 members of online personals sites, we examine participants’ 
privacy and security concerns and the extent to which they influence their self-presentation and self-disclosure, as well as the factors that influence their degree of trust in those they meet 
online, and which, if any, “warranting” strategies they use to increase credibility of such partners. Despite the reduced socioemotional cues present in CMC, online dating participants 
face pressures to present a great deal of personal information up front in their profile, including intimate details such as their income, smoking and drinking habits, desire for children, and 
religious beliefs – information which is typically not disclosed so soon in initial face-to-face encounters. Online dating participants must negotiate conflicting needs to both reveal and 
control their identities as they strive to both preserve their own privacy and provide enough personal data make their profile be noticed by others; our research investigates the strategies 
though which this tension is managed. This research provides insight into how US citizens negotiate the trade-off between privacy and security in an important modern arena, and may 
inform public discussion about the relationship between privacy and security in the context of Homeland Security more broadly.  

*Joint work with Nicole B. Ellison, Michigan State University and Rebecca D. Heino, Georgetown University