Pew Survey Finds Over 60% of Social Network Users Have Deleted a Friend

Posted on February 25, 2012

A new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet Project & American Life found that most people choose restricted privacy settings. Over half of social network users (52% to 60% depending on demographic) keep their settings on private, choosing to share information only with friends. The survey found that about 20% keep their settings public and the other 20% keep their profile information partially private.

The survey also found that 63% of adults have a social networking profile. These users have been increasingly pruning their friends lists and making stronger moves towards privacy. 63% say they have deleted someone from their friends list - a jump from 56% in 2009. Women are more likely to purge a "friend" than men. 67% of women who maintain a profile say they have deleted people from their network, compared with 58% of men.

37% say they have removed their names from photographs that were tagged to identify them. 44% admit to purging comments made by others on their profile. You can find the complete Pew report here.

Here is a chart showing the percentage of users selecting private settings.