'I Have Too Much Respect For My Elders': Understanding South African Mobile Users' Perceptions Of Privacy And Current Behaviors On Facebook And Whatsapp

Facebook usage is growing in developing countries, but we know little about how to tailor social media privacy settings to users in less well-resourced settings. To that end, we present findings from interviews of 52 current mobile social media users in South Africa. We found users' primary privacy-related concern was who else could see their posts and messages, not what data the platforms or advertisers collect about them. Second, users displayed general knowledge gaps on existing social media privacy settings and relied heavily on blocking and passwords for privacy and security protection. Third, users' privacy and security-related behaviors were heavily influenced by living in high-crime areas. Based on these findings, we suggest future work to better serve users' privacy and security needs in less well-resourced settings.