User Perceptions and Privacy Concerns in Targeted Advertising: Evaluating Folk Theories in the Context of Facebook

Context: Social media platforms, particularly Facebook, employ targeted advertising strategies based on the search histories of users, raising significant privacy concerns. Understanding user perceptions of these practices is critical for designing transparent and user-centered advertising systems within the human-computer interaction (HCI) framework. Objective: This study aims to investigate the privacy concerns experienced by Facebook users in response to targeted advertisements. It seeks to evaluate the relevance of predefined folk theories explaining user perceptions and behaviors regarding digital privacy. Method: The research employed a three-phase approach. First, an initial round of interviews was conducted to explore user perspectives on privacy and targeted advertising, focusing on predefined folk theories and gathering preliminary insights. Based on these insights, a pilot test was conducted to refine the survey questions, ensuring clarity and relevance. Finally, the refined survey was administered to a carefully selected sample representing diverse demographics. The collected data was analyzed to evaluate the alignment between user-reported concerns and the established folk theories. Results: Preliminary findings indicate significant user discomfort with the perceived lack of transparency and control over data usage for targeted advertising. While some folk theories align closely with observed user concerns, others fall short in addressing the nuances of individual privacy expectations in the social media context. Conclusion: The study underscores the importance of enhancing transparency and user control mechanisms in targeted advertising systems. It also highlights the need to refine existing folk theories to better account for the complexities of user perceptions and behaviors, ultimately contributing to more privacy-conscious ad designs on social media platforms.