Survey: How Mobile Device Users Protect Their Privacy With Mobile Apps

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center investigated how mobile device users manage their privacy. The survey included both cell phone users and smart phone users. Key findings:

"54% of app users have decided to not install a cell phone app when they discovered how much personal information they would need to share in order to use it; 30% of app users have uninstalled an app that was already on their cell phone because they learned it was collecting personal information that they didn’t wish to share. Taken together, 57% of all app users have either uninstalled an app over concerns about having to share their personal information, or declined to install an app in the first place for similar reasons."

It is good to read that consumers are not blindly downloading and using mobile device apps, since prior studies have documented sporadic and inconsistent access to privacy policies for mobile apps. After pressure from the California Attorney General, several companies (e.g., Amazon.com, Apple, Google, hewlett-packard, Microsoft, and Research In Motion) that operate mobile app stores agreed to improve app privacy policies disclosing the personal data collected, stored, and shared. Earlier this month, researchers at M.I.T. documented privacy abuses by mobile apps that tracked consumers without notice nor consent. And, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission published guidelines for businesses that develop and market mobile device apps.

The Pew survey found that almost one-third, 31% of all smart phone users surveyed, have lost their device or had it stolen. Among users 18 to 24 years of age, about 45% had either lost their device or had it stolen. The survey authors concluded:

"Smartphone owners are generally more active in managing their mobile data, but also experience greater exposure to privacy intrusions"

The table below highlights this conclusion:

Activity	Smart Phone Users	Cell Phone Users
Back up phone contents	59%	21%
Cleared browsing or search history	50%	14%
Turned off location tracking	30%	7%
Experienced lost or stolen device	33%	29%
Somebody accessed device in a way that felt like a privacy intrustion	15%	8%

Pew conducted the nationwide survey, in both English and Spanish, of 2,254 adults (age 18 and older) during March 15 to April 3, 2012. Download the Pew report: "Privacy and Data management on Mobile Devices."

Comments

[Anonymous]

Its a great post.i will definitely share it with my friends.

[Hotcandy]

Value to read, good post.

[Qumar]

I should probably upgrade my almost nonexistent hacking skills for that day, narc, because it will surely come after me first

[computer repair business]

"Smartphone owners are generally more active in managing their mobile data, but also experience greater exposure to privacy intrusions"

I definitely agree.With greater Information technology comes greater risks.It's a double edged sword,no doubt when you use a cell device to communicate.this is why it is a good thing these computer services companies were put under pressure to do something about improving their privacy policies to protect us their customers.I use a droid phone and I don't allow any app that isn't allowed in the google play store.Even though this isn't foolproof,this is a good first step!