(MWP2 Precis 1) Rhetorical Precis on "Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences"

In "Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences", Bernhard Debatin, Jannette P. Lovejoy, Ann-Kathrin Horn and Brittany N. Hughes investigate Facebook users' perception and awareness of online privacy issues by conducting a survey on over a hundred undergraduates and following up with eight face-to-face interviews with some of the surveyed individuals in an attempt to show that, even though most users of online social networks like Facebook think they know about privacy issues and take measures to avoid being exploited, do not usually know the extent of privacy invasion on the internet. They first review the questions asked in their survey, which included time spent on facebook and activities performed, as well as insight on whether they felt these activities were harmful to their online privacy; they followed up with a recap of their eight interviews, and then closed the paper with a discussion on what mistakes those in the interviews made and how they could be avoided by other facebook users.  They intend to disclose common habits and behaviors displayed by members of online social networks, and which ones can be harmful or dangerous to ones personal information and privacy even if they seem harmless at first glance.  Their intended audience are those interested in the topic of online security and privacy, or online social network members in general.

Article Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01494.x/full

MLA Citation:
Debatin, Bernhard; Lovejoy, Jannette P.; Horn, Ann-Kathrin; Hughes, Brittany N. "Facebook and Online
        Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences". Journal of Computer-Mediated 
        Communication 15.1 (17 November 2009): 83-108. Web. 2 March 2012.

Annotation:
This article's thorough coverage of the average social network user's understanding of privacy settings and networks' terms was used in order to establish points that redirect the confrontation and blame away from the social networking sites and toward the users and general online ignorance.