A gamified nudging method for privacy personalization in social networks and its effects on online hostility and user engagement

• A gamified nudging method for privacy personalization was proposed and evaluated in this study. • Experimental results show that users personalizing privacy settings increases user engagement in two ways. • Survey results indicate that user satisfaction with the application privacy settings increases even if users do not use it. • Users who have personalized their privacy settings experience significantly less online hostility than those who have not. • Middle-aged users and men are slightly more likely to take action to personalize their privacy settings. This study introduces a novel gamified nudging method to encourage social network users to personalize their privacy settings. Analyzing behavioral data from 19,123 active users, we found that 60 % of users exposed to the gamified nudge used it to adjust their privacy settings. In total, 16,035 users (84 %) personalized their settings via the gamified nudge or the options menu. Users who personalized their privacy settings exhibited significantly higher engagement, viewing more pages and sending more messages, likes, and friend requests compared to those who did not respond to the nudge, while non-personalizing users showed baseline engagement levels. Statistical analyses confirmed these differences across all interaction metrics (p < 0.001). Notably, 84.24 % of privacy-personalizing users chose to remain open for communication while selectively restricting more sensitive information, supporting that privacy personalization does not hinder social interaction. Survey data (n = 60) further revealed that users who personalized their privacy settings reported significantly lower experiences of online hostility and more satisfaction (p = 0.002). Demographic analysis showed that the gamified nudge was more effective among men and middle-aged users, while education showed mixed effects. A chi-square analysis confirmed that users applied different privacy preferences based on content type, such as being open to messages but limiting who can see personal or sensitive information. These findings suggest that while nudging users to personalize their privacy settings may seem to limit communication and engagement between them, it conversely increases user engagement and satisfaction.