English abstract
Facebook has revolutionized how people interact and communicate. However, criminals find new
ways to use massive data on Facebook to commit cybercrimes. Facebook alone collects more than
500 terabytes of information daily. Hence this study aims to clarify the connection between
cybercrimes and the accessible users' data on Facebook in light of the available statistics and the
views of some information security experts. The study also aims to identify the technical methods
used by cybercrime offenders of Facebook's Big Data and to survey the users views regarding their
ways to protect the privacy of their personal data, This study used the qualitative approach,
analysing cybercrimes statistics issued by the Information Technology Centre of the Omani
Information Technology Authority, and conducted interviews with 30 experts in information security,
and regular Facebook users. The results showed that 70% of respondents believe that there is a relationship between cybercrimes and the use of personal information of Facebook users. Moreover,
more than 66% of respondents believe that users are concerned about their privacy on Facebook,
yet only 33% of the respondents are managing the privacy settings of their accounts. The study
concluded that further studies are needed to understand the root causes and solutions of
cybercrimes in order to reduce their frequency in the future.
