App Selection and Privacy: Analyzing Processing Strategies for Privacy Information During the App Selection

• In Event: The Use and Effects of New Media

Abstract

While privacy behavior is generally equated with self-disclosure, other forms of behavior which potentially infringe an individual’s privacy, such as downloading an app, are being neglected by research. We seek to fill this gap, by modelling app decsion making within a dual-process model of the attitude-behavior relation and the role of privacy attitudes in two kinds of information processing: spontaneous, heuristic processes which rely on automated attitude activation and more elaborate, cognitive processes that rely on behavioral intentions to guide behavior. We use a quasi-experimental design to investigate app decision making processes in n = 254 cases. Participants were asked to provide information on their actions after downloading three apps on their smartphones over a 2 week period. We were able to identify two distinct types of information processing and found support for attitude activation and to a lesser degree intentions as requirements for privacy attitudes’ influence on app decsion making.

Authors

• Jakob Henke, TU Dortmund University

• Sven Joeckel, U of Erfurt

• Leyla Dogruel, Johannes Gutenberg - U Mainz