DATA MINING: THE THREAT TO THE PRIVACY OF FACEBOOK SOCIAL NETWORK SITE USERS

Abstract

This article explores the potential of data mining as a technique that could be used by malicious data miners to threaten the privacy of Facebook Social Network Site users. It applies a data mining algorithm, specifically a clustering algorithm, to a hypothetical dataset of a sample of individuals from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen to show the ease at which characteristics about the SNSs users can be discovered and used in a way that could invade their privacy. It is hoped by exploring the threats from data mining on individuals’ privacy is enable SNSs developers better understand the ways in which SNSs can be used by malevolent data miners to harm users and how to operate in SNS safely. Another important outcome is to help developers of SNSs develop mechanisms that will provide protection to users from these knowledge discovery techniques.