Privacy suites: shared privacy for social networks

Creating privacy controls for social networks that are both expressive and usable is a major challenge. Lack of user understanding of privacy settings can lead to unwanted disclosure of private information and, in some cases, to material harm. We propose a new paradigm which allows users to easily choose “suites” of privacy settings which have been specified by friends or trusted experts, only modifying them if they wish. Given that most users currently stick with their default, operator-chosen settings, such a system could dramatically increase the privacy protection that most users experience with minimal time investment.