10/4/13
The average U.S. smartphone user began using a smartphone about three years ago and currently has between 10 and 50 apps installed on his or her phone, according to TRUSTe. Two-thirds of smartphone owners are just as concerned about privacy on their mobile devices as they are about privacy on their computers (48%) or even more concerned about privacy on their smartphones (18%). Privacy is the second most-important concern when using mobile apps, after battery life.
Although most privacy concerns among smartphone users parallel the concerns of Internet users in general, smartphone users are more likely than Internet users overall to be concerned about their privacy when using online banking.
The vast majority of smartphone users (76%) believe they are the ones who are responsible for protecting their privacy while using mobile devices, rather than wireless service providers, device manufacturers, app developers, or governments.
Almost one in four smartphone users (24%) are not willing to share any personal information with mobile apps, even if required to enable the app to run. Information that users are most willing to share includes gender, age, and email address. Just over one in 10 would share their precise location with an app.
More than four in 10 smartphone users (43%) say they wouldn’t be willing to share information about themselves with a company in exchange for a free or lower-cost app. The number of consumers who are willing to share at least some information has grown, however, from 31% in 2012 to 38% in 2013.
SOURCE: “U.S. 2013 Consumer Data Privacy Study-Mobile Edition,” TRUSTe, Dave Deasy, VP Marketing, 835 Market St., #800, Box 137, San Francisco, CA 94103; 415-520-3490; ddeasy@truste.com; www.truste.com. Price: Available online at no charge.
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