A Usability Evaluation of Facebook's Privacy Features Based on the Perspectives of Experts and Users

The issue of privacy in social networks is a hot topic today, because of the growing amount of information shared among users, who are connected to social media every moment and by different devices and displays. This chapter presents a usability evaluation of the privacy features of Facebook’s social network. The authors carry out an evaluation composed by three approaches, executed in three stages: first by the analysis and inspection of system’s features related to privacy, available for both systems (Web-based systems and mobile-based systems, e.g. app). The second step is a heuristic evaluation led by three experts, and finally, the third step is a questionnaire with 605 users to compare the results between specialists and real users. This chapter aims to present the problems associated with these privacy settings, and it also wants to contribute for improving the user interaction with this social network. A Usability Evaluation of Facebook’s Privacy Features Based on the Perspectives of Experts and Users