Awareness of Data Security of Facebook users in the Philippines

— Awareness of Data Security of Facebook Users in the Philippines Identifying the level of awareness and does gender affect the level of awareness. The researchers conducted online surveys to facilitate the consolidation easily and have a faster tracking of the number of respondents. This research is based on another research from Harvard stating that Filipinos are the least in the ranking and need to be made aware of Data Security and its importance. It is a reality check if Filipinos need to be made aware; the respondents come from first-year University of Cordilleras students, specifically from the College of Information and Computer Science. We have chosen the first-year students knowing that teens nowadays use Facebook not only to socialize with others but also in terms of school and family matters. The following chapters include a brief overview of social networking and social media history. They focus primarily on the Facebook website and one of the main problems: its data and privacy security settings and policies. After setting the stage with this overview, various research related to privacy and data security awareness of various countries will be summarized and compared with the survey results conducted in this research. This study mainly focused on understanding how far Facebook users in the Philippines understand Facebook's privacy and data security. Surveys conducted in this research also look to determine to what extent Filipino Facebook users edit and configure their privacy settings online. Aside from these findings, there is also a comparison between Male and Female Facebook users to determine whether there is any significant difference in the survey results


INTRODUCTION
The emergence of the Internet and Social Media, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, have changed how we communicate.Social media gave us an accessible, fast, and immediate communication medium.It gave access to anyone and anything, and we could actively engage on any issues and in any area immediately and constantly.
With 1 billion users actively using it daily [1], Facebook is the number one social media site today.When Facebook emerged in 2004, it rapidly gained acceptance in the Philippines.One factor in the acceptance of Facebook by Filipinos could be due to the 1.06 million Filipinos working in other countries that year.As of May 2014, the number has grown to 2.3 million.[3] Facebook gave Filipinos a fast and visual communication medium with loved ones abroad.Now the Philippines is the most engaged country in the use of Social Media and the 5th largest Facebook users around the world.[2] In the study by Genevieve Molina, a Filipino-American graduate school student from Harvard University, entitled The Unintelligent Facebook Users.[6] shows the number of Filipino Facebook User Data.The Philippines has 37,020,80 (37%) Internet users out of its 100,600,000 people, and 36,980,250 are Facebook Users.Of the 36,980,250 Facebook users, 21,785,985 (59%) log in daily.There are also new Filipino Facebook users every 5 minutes, which translates to 300 new users per hour or 7200 new users per day.While Female Filipino Facebook users out-numbered males by 4% only.Figure 1 shows that the number one social media that Filipino uses is Facebook, based on the statistics gathered by the National TeleHealth Center of the Philippines.[4] IJELS-2022, 7 (6), (ISSN: 2456-7620) https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.76.65 632

Fig.1: Top Active Social Platforms used by Filipino
Facebook is clearly in every aspect of Filipinos' lives.They use it for contacting families and friends, and they use it for school in sharing notes and presentations.Filipinos also use it for advertising products, taking surveys, etc.The possibilities are endless when it comes to using Facebook.Filipinos are also fond of sharing everything and anything about themselves on Facebook.They take photos of themselves, now called "selfies," and share them 24 by 7.They also post the food they will or have eaten, the cars they are driving, and the travels they will and have taken on Facebook.Facebook has become an online personal diary for most Filipinos.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Filipinos are always online, and the majority use Facebook most of the time.They do not control the kind and the amount of information they post and share.One user named Jay (not his real name) posted pictures of every nook and cranny of their brand-new house.He posted again about how their house was broken into and burglarized.He also mentioned what was taken from their house.Another person posted pictures and comments about her father and a policeman shooting their neighbor's dog, and Netizens lambasted her.One of my students downloaded all his female classmates' pictures from Facebook without permission and used them in a school project.One nursing student in Taguig City was sent to jail because she shared a photo of a victim of an accident that went viral.[5] According to the study of Genevieve Molina in Harvard, entitled "The Unintelligent Facebook Users," Filipinos are among the most unintelligent people because out of 4,823,330 people who like and share, only 957,980(19.87%)only actually read what they are sharing or liking.Uncontrolled and unedited posting daily postings and status updates are 21,369,436, and the same number is also for sharing and downloading information without permission or citation of sources.[6] This kind of activity raises real concerns about data privacy and data security.These actions are a direct or indirect violation of RA 8792 Data privacy act of the Philippines, which states: [8]  Therefore, this study aims to know the level of awareness of Filipino users on Facebook regarding data privacy and security.In this study, we determined privacy concerns and the usage of Facebook.

LIMITATIONS
In this study, a survey instrument will be used to gather information.The survey will be given to students taking their first-year bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Information Technology at the University of the Cordilleras.The data gathered through the survey will then be interpreted using frequency and qualitative analysis.

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Social Media
Social media is "websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking."Social networking is "the use of dedicated websites and applications to interact with other users, or to find people with similar interest to oneself."[21] These terms are very commonly used nowadays that only really need a little defining for most people to understand.After all, a massive portion of the world's population actively uses social media [22.]In 1997, sixdegrees.com,one of the earliest wellknown social networking sites, was established.In 1999, blogs and other types of social media began to emerge rapidly.These sites are LiveJournal, Friendster, MySpace, YouTube, Xanga, and Facebook.These modern forms of social networks allow users to message each other through both text and video chat, share files, blog, create groups, and many other similar functions.
Social networking is a relatively new and quickly growing trend, with more than thirty new significant sites created within a decade of the first (sixdegrees.com)primary social networking site.With this growing trend, many new opportunities to capture the attention or interest of many people are opening.

Facebook.
For most people, the words "social media" or "social networking" will most likely generate the image of Facebook in their minds.Although many other social networking sites are widely used on the internet, many were created before Facebook.This is because Facebook is the most common and widely used social networking site IJELS-2022, 7 (6) With new technologies and booming interest in social media and social networking, many new issues related to privacy and security have also been rising.Let us look specifically at Facebook's privacy and security settings.According to Facebook's Data Policy, they collect all the information from things one does on Facebook and all the information they provide.[24] This includes many different types of information.Facebook takes note of the locations where users upload photos, share messages, and conduct other activities.Facebook also records how services on the site are used, such as what users view, how long in duration, or even how frequently these services are used.Information about payments made through transactions on Facebook is also recorded.This information included significant card numbers, such as credit/debit card information and shipping and contact details.The users' device information is also collected, including geographic locations, ISPs, IP addresses, mobile phone numbers, and more.Third-party websites also need to provide general information to Facebook.These thirdparty sites could be any site that uses Facebook services such as 'like' buttons.This is quite a lot of information that is being collected through Facebook.However, how exactly is it being used?Facebook's policy states that they do not 'sell' this information but will 'work with' companies by sharing non-personally identifiable information for advertising and analytic services.Now let us look at general statistics about how many people are aware of various Facebook privacy settings.One research surveyed both Facebook and non-Facebook users and observed that non-Facebook users generally distrust Facebook more than Facebook users.The following are actual statistics that have been taken from this research.[25] The vast majority (77%) of respondents claimed not to have read any of Facebook's privacy policies.Of course, these numbers are higher than the survey shows.67% believe that Facebook does not collect information about them from other sources, and 70% believe that Facebook does not combine this same information gathered from various sources.Slightly more than half (56%) do not believe that Facebook shared information with third parties (although FB's policy states that they do not share personally identifying information with third parties).
Let us also look at how many people have trust in Facebook or various parties or users of Facebook.These are statistics taken from the same research as above.The values represent the average response from 1 to 10, with 1 meaning "do not trust at all" and 10 meaning "trust completely."They moderately trust the company of Facebook itself (4.20/10).They trust their friends on Facebook more than anything else on the survey (5.62/10).Friends of friends get less distrust than immediate friends (4.35/10).Facebook users who are not connected to their network receive the least trust from the survey participants.This scored their trust rating of 3.29/10.Although this number is low, it is still worth noting that their trust is slightly higher for Facebook users compared to users of other sites such as MySpace and Friendster.Similar statistics were taken from research that gave a survey of Malaysian students.Here is a summary of the results: [26] 55.1% of the students claimed they had never read the Facebook privacy policy.The primary reason is that it is "difficult to understand" (according to 33.6%) and "takes too much effort to read" (according to 43.4%).Another similar research from Finland concentrated more on the awareness of privacy of online networking sites.Here are some significant results from their survey: [27] 55% need to learn that they have the right to access Facebook profile information when using various apps.73% need to be aware that Facebook can share information with people or organizations outside of Facebook to help other organizations with marketing.85% of people claimed to have NOT read Facebook's terms of use.79% of people claimed to have NOT read Facebook's privacy policy.

OBJECTIVE
The study aims to answer the following questions regarding the awareness of Filipino users on Facebook regarding data privacy and data security: 1. Do Filipinos read the data privacy policy of Facebook?And/or know where to look for it?2. Do Filipinos configure their data privacy setting on Facebook?And/or know where to set it?3. Do Filipinos practice some data privacy protection methods?If so, what would that be? 4. Are Filipinos aware that what they post on Facebook could be used by other people, possibly used illegally?If so, how do they protect themselves from that ever happening?5. Does a person's gender affect the amount of information they are willing to share on Facebook?
III. METHODOLOGY This paper focused on the awareness of Filipino Facebook users regarding Data Privacy and Data Security.To help understand Filipino users' awareness, a survey will be conducted on first-year students taking their bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Information Technology at the University of the Cordilleras, Baguio City.The data IJELS-2022, 7( 6), (ISSN: 2456-7620) https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.76.65 634 gathered through the survey will then be interpreted using frequency and qualitative analysis.

Sampling Method
To eliminate bias in the selection process, proper sampling methods are essential.This will also allow for the reduction of cost or effort in gathering respondents in the study.There are several sampling methods, but the study will utilize stratified sampling, wherein a population will be split into categories and selected randomly from within each category.[7] In this study, the participants will be two respondents; female and male students.This is in line with the objective of the study, wherein whether a Facebook Filipino user's gender has any bearing on the amount of data they are willing to share on Facebook and their level of awareness of data privacy and security.

Survey/Interview Method
The study will use a survey instrument to enable an understanding of Filipino users' awareness of data privacy and data security in the use of Facebook.The survey instrument to be used is in Annex A, which results from the study of several research papers related to social networks, data privacy, data security, and Facebook usage.The instrument will then be made available online to facilitate easy distribution and automate the collation and summarization of answers.A face-to-face interview with the respondent will also be conducted to verify the responses and increase the result's reliability.

Statistical Analysis
As stated earlier, the data gathered through the survey will then be collated, summarized, and interpreted using frequency and qualitative analysis.The study will then present the results in tables and/or graphs to understand how the gathered data relates to the underlying respondents' level of awareness of Filipino Facebook users on data privacy and data security.

IV. RESULTS
A survey was conducted on 60 first-year students taking up Information Technology at the University of the Cordilleras to enable us to determine their level of awareness of data privacy and security in the use of Facebook.Fifty percent (50%) or 30 of the respondents are female, and the other fifty percent (50%) or 30 are male.
When the users were asked how often they use Facebook, 50% of the respondents, both male, and female, indicated that they use it every other day.While 30% of females and 43.33 of males indicated that they always use Facebook, refer to Table 1 for the survey result.

Table 1. How often do you use Facebook?
In Table 2, 33% and 36% of the females and males indicated that they have more than one Facebook account.The reason for having more than one account is one or a combination of the reasons; for business purposes, dummy accounts and/or they have exceeded the friends limit.The table above shows that 26, or 86.7% of the total female respondents, and 24, or 80% of the total male respondents, are aware of Data Security.On the other hand, 4, or 13.3% of the total female respondents, and 6, or 20% of the total male respondents, need to be made aware of data security.
The ratio is 2 out of 10 females, and 3 out of 10 males need to be aware of Data Security.

Table 4. Importance of Data Security.
Table 4 shows that 25, 83.33% of the total number of female respondents and 16, or 53.33% of the total number of male respondents, said that Data Security is Very Important for every Facebook user. 1 or 3.33% of the total female respondents and 7 or 23.33% of the total male respondents said that Data Security is Important for every Facebook user.0% of both groups said that Data Security is Not Important for every Facebook user.Furthermore, 4, or 13.33% of the total female respondents, and 6, or 20% of the total male respondents, did not answer because they needed to be made aware of Data Security.
The following Tables show the State of Facebook Policies in place to Prevent Data Leakage.

Table 5.Password Policy or Standard
The table above shows that 26, or 86.67% of the total number of female respondents and 21, or 70% of the total number of male respondents, said that the Policy or Standard on Passwords of Facebook is Clearly Stated.3 or 10% of the total female respondents and 7 or 23.33% of the total male respondents said that the Policy or Standard needs to be clearly stated. 1 or 3.33% of the total female respondents and 2 or 2% of the total male respondents said that Facebook does not have such a policy or standard.Table 6 shows that 27 (90%) of the total female respondents and 20 (66.67%) of the total male respondents said that the Policy on Information Security of Facebook is Clearly Stated.3 (10%) of the total number of female respondents and 7 (23.33%) of the total number of male respondents said that the Policy on Information Security is Not Clearly Stated.0 from the total number of female respondents and 3(10%) from the total number of male respondents said that Facebook does not have such policy or standard stated.

Table 7. Data Protection or Privacy Policy
The table above shows that 26(86.67%) of the total number of female respondents and 20(66.67%) of the total number of male respondents said that the Data Protection or Privacy Policy of Facebook is Clearly Stated.4(13.33%) of the total number of female respondents and 9(10%) of the total number of male respondents said that the Policy or Standard is Not Clearly Stated.0 from the total number of female respondents and 1(3.33%) from the total number of male respondents said that Facebook does not have a such policy or standard stated.The table above shows that 27 (90%) of the total number of female respondents and 20 23(76.67%) of the total number of male respondents said that the Policy on User Access to Facebook is Clearly Stated.3 (10%) of the total number of female respondents, 6(20%) of the total male respondents said that the Policy on User Access is Not Clearly Stated.0 from the total number of female respondents and 1(3.33%) from the total number of male respondents said that Facebook does not have a such policy or standard stated.The table above shows that 24(80%) of the total female and 22(73.33%) of the total male respondents said that the Policy or Standard Data Classification of Facebook is Clearly Stated.6(20%) of the total number of female respondents and 7(23.33%) of the total number of male respondents said that the Policy or Standard is Not Clearly Stated.0 from the total number of female respondents and 1(3.33%) from the total number of male respondents said that Facebook does not have a such policy or standard stated.
The Tables above show that females read more about the policies than males.The NONE indicates how many users need to read or be made aware that Facebook has imposed those policies or standards.
The ratio is 0 to 1 out of 30 females, and 1 to 3 out of 30 males tend to click accept without reading the policies.
The following Tables show how to update users on issues considered in the application to improve Data Security Awareness on Facebook.

Table 10. Distribution of Information Bulletins on new issues in DATA SECURITY through Emails.
The table above shows that 3(10%) of the total number of female respondents and 13(43.33%) of the total number of male respondents said that they always receive information bulletins on new issues in Data Security through emails from Facebook.18(60%) of the total number of female respondents and 15(50%) of the total number of male respondents said they only receive Often Times.9(20%) of the total number of female respondents and 2(6.67%) from the total number of male respondents said that they have yet to receive any information bulletins.The table above shows that 5(16.67%) of the total number of female respondents and 15(50%) of the total number of male respondents said that Facebook had Always been two executing special events or workshops in DATA SECURITY for users in high-risk groups through online or personal.15(50%) of the total female respondents and 18(60%) of the total male respondents said that Facebook Often Times executes such events.10(33.33%) of the total female respondents and 3(10%) of the total male respondents said that Facebook never executed such events.
The following Tables show the satisfaction level of users in Accessing and Managing Facebook Account/s in terms of Data Security.The table above shows that 6(20%) of the total female respondents and 12(40%) of the total male respondents said they are Very Satisfied with the Password Management of Facebook.24(80%) of the total number of female respondents and 17(56.67%)from the total number of male respondents said they were Satisfied.0 from the total number of female respondents and 1(3.33%)from the total number of male respondents said they were Unsatisfied.

Table 13. User Account Management
The table above shows that 10(33.33%) of the total number of female respondents and 8(26.67%) of the total number of male respondents said they are Very Satisfied with the User Account Management of Facebook.20(66.67%) of the total female and male respondents said they were Satisfied.0 from the total number of female respondents and 2(6.67%) from the total number of male respondents said they were Unsatisfied.
The following Tables show how many respondents know where to configure and learn more about Data Privacy setting on Facebook.
Table 14.Awareness of where to find the Privacy Setting on Facebook.
The table above shows that 29(96.7%) of the total female and 28(93.33%) of the total male respondents are aware of where to find the Privacy Setting on Facebook.On the other hand, 1(3.33%) of the total number of female respondents and 2(6.67%) of the total number of male respondents must be aware of data security.
The ratio is 0 to 1 out of 10 females, and 1 out of 10 males need to know where to find the Privacy Setting on Facebook.The table shows that 20(66.67%) of the total female respondents and 21(70%) of the total number male respondents are aware of where to find the Privacy Setting on Facebook.On the other hand, 10(33.33%) of the total female respondents and 9(30%) of the total male respondents need to be made aware.
The ratio is 5 out of 10 females, and 4 to 5 out of 10 males need to know where to find more about Data Privacy on Facebook.Now, let us look at some survey results to understand whether Filipinos are aware of their data privacy settings on Facebook.At the same time, check whether or not there is a significant difference between survey results of males vs. females.

Fig.2. Do you configure your data privacy setting on
Facebook?A significantly high number of respondents claim to know how to configure data privacy settings on Facebook.There isn't a significant difference here between males and females.According to this result, there are significantly fewer numbers of people who know what 'privacy shortcuts' are.Realistically this result is closer to a 50:50 'yes' to 'no' ratio.Again, there are no significant differences from male survey results compared to females, except for slightly more males claiming 'yes.'Most respondents claim to know about the Privacy Checkup portion of Facebook.There is no difference between male and female survey results.The following tables will now show the respondents' answers to several questions to enable this study to determine if they practice some data protection method and, if so, what that would be.Furthermore, are Filipinos aware that what they post on Facebook could be used by other people, possibly used illegally?If so, how do they protect themselves from that ever happening?Based on the results for the questions, do you practice some data privacy protection methods, and if yes, what kind of method/s do they practice?the respondent practice some form of data privacy method, more so with the female respondent 80%, and 56.67% of the male respondents.

Very
There is a significant difference between female and male respondents regarding the data protection method they practice.Most female respondents use combinations of methods to protect their identities on Facebook, 70%, compared to male respondents, who mostly use only one kind of privacy protection method, 43.33%.According to the previous table showing the responses to the question on who can view their personal information, the respondents, both females, and males, have Limited only their friends to view their personal information with 63.33% and 66.67%, respectively.
Based also on the result shown in Tables 20 and  21, most female and male respondents enabled the public and their friends to add and message them.The above table shows no significant difference between male and female respondents regarding experiencing identity theft issues on Facebook, with only 16.6% from the female respondents and only 10% from the male.
The following table summarizes their specific experiences with identity thefts issue on Facebook.Most respondents' experience was on False Social Media Accounts of themselves and from the male respondents with 10% of them indicated that their personal information was used in school by others.V. SUMMARY Most of the respondents are aware of data privacy and its importance.They also know where to set or configure this on Facebook and where to look for more information.Regarding awareness of Facebook privacy settings, a large majority of the respondents claimed 'yes' to more common basic privacy settings.In contrast, a sligh majority claimed 'yes' to more unique settings.There are no noticeable or significant differences between male vs. female answers.
The low incidence among the respondents on the identity theft issue with Facebook could be attributed to their awareness of what public information is and, at the same time, what they practice to protect their personal information on Facebook.It is essential to point out that more female respondents use different combinations of personal information privacy protection methods compared to their male counterpart, who primarily uses only one method, limiting the number of their friends on Facebook or periodically changing their passwords.

VI. CONCLUSION
Based on the result of this study, the respondents have read the data privacy policy of Facebook and indicated that it is clearly stated.They also configure their data privacy setting on Facebook or where to look for it.Most respondents also stated that they practice one or more data privacy protection methods because they know others could use their information.For the question, does a person's gender affect the amount of information they are willing to share on Facebook?The answer is that there is no significant difference between the two genders, but this is inconclusive.However, it is noteworthy that more Females practice a combination of personal information protection methods than their male counterparts.IJELS-2022, 7( 6), (ISSN: 2456-7620) https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.76.65 643 Considering the time constraints in doing the study and the number of respondents, the proponent of this study recommends further study on the Awareness of Filipino Facebook Users on Data Privacy to cover the different demographics of what represents the Filipino people.This will give a holistic view of the meaning of Data Privacy to Filipinos and a thorough understanding of how they use Facebook.The study's proponents also recommend that the survey instrument be improved to include questions that would better assess the responses and support interviews to understand better and validate the answers.

Fig. 3 .
Fig.3.Do you know what your privacy shortcuts are?

Fig. 4 .
Fig. 4. What is the Privacy Checkup, and how can you find it?

Fig. 5 .
Fig.5.Do you know how to change the setting of your post in terms of your reader or viewer?

Fig. 6 .
Fig.6.Are you aware of the filter setting on Facebook in terms of messaging?

Fig. 7 .
Fig.7.Do you know what audiences you can choose from when you share?

Table 2 .
How many Facebook accounts do you have?One of the aims of the study is to know if Filipinos read the data privacy policy of Facebook and/or at least know where to look for it.Nevertheless, first, let us look at the level of Awareness and Importance of Data Security in every Facebook user by the respondents.

Table 3 .
Awareness of Data Security.

Table 6 .
Information Security Policy.

Table 8 .
User Access Policy.

Table 9 .
Data Classification Policy.

Table 11 .
Executing special events or workshops in DATA SECURITY for users in high-risk groups online or personally.

Table 12 .
Password Management and learn more about Data Privacy setting on Facebook.

Table 15 .
Awareness of where to find more about Data Privacy onFacebook.

Table 16 .
Are you aware of what is considered public information?

Table 17 .
Do you practice some data privacy protection methods?

Table 18 .
If yes, which of the following do you practice?

Table 19 .
Who can view your personal information?

Table 20 .
Who can add you?

Table 21 .
Who can message you?Finally, the study also asked the respondents if they had ever experienced an issue of identity theft on Facebook and what is/are their specific experiences regarding this.The results are shown in the succeeding tables.

Table 22 .
Have you ever experienced Identity Theft Issue on Facebook?

Table 23 .
If yes, in the previous item/question, what is your specific experience?