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The purpose of this paper is to examine gender and age differences regarding various aspects of privacy, trust, and activity on one of the most popular Facebook activity – “photo sharing.”

The data were collected using an online survey hosted by a web-based survey service for three weeks during December 2014-January 2015. The target audience comprised of Facebook users over 18 years engaged in sharing their photos on the platform.

Women and young Facebook users are significantly more concerned about the privacy of their shared photos. Meanwhile, users from older age groups are less active in using the site, in sharing photos, and in taking privacy-related protective measures. Interestingly, despite having more privacy concerns, young Facebook users display higher trust levels toward the platform than older users. Overall, in the study, there was an extremely significant difference in privacy attitudes among people under and over 35 years of age.

The main contribution of this study is new knowledge regarding the gender and age differences in various privacy-related aspects, trust, and activity. Findings from the study broadens the overall understanding of how these issues positively/negatively influence the photo-sharing activity on Facebook.

The popularity of Facebook photo sharing has not only seen a surge in the number of photos shared but also has raised various issues concerning user privacy and self-disclosure. Recent literature has documented the increasing interest of the research community in understanding various privacy issues concerning self-disclosures on Facebook. However, little is known about how different privacy issues, trust and activity influence users’ intentions to share photos on Facebook. To bridge this gap, a research model was developed and tested to better understand the impact of privacy concerns, privacy awareness and privacy-seeking on trust and actual photo sharing activity and subsequently on photo sharing intentions. This study aims to examine the consequences of various facets of privacy associated with photo sharing activity on Facebook.

A cross-sectional data from 378 respondents were collected and analysed using partial least squares modelling.

The results revealed a significant relationship between various aspects of privacy, including awareness and protective behaviour, with trust and activity. Furthermore, trust and users’ photo sharing activity significantly impact photo sharing intentions on Facebook.

This study contributes new knowledge concerning various privacy issues and their impact on photo sharing activity and trust. The study also proposes implications that are highly relevant for social networking sites, media agencies and organisations involved in safeguarding the privacy of online users.