Participatory Sensing or Sensing of Participation: Awareness and Privacy Concerns With Smart Device Applications

Smart devices have become a basic necessity in this technically advanced era. Many smart device applications, when installed, collect personal data and track users' online behavior for marketing or other purposes. This study aims to explore whether users are aware of related privacy issues and whether their knowledge influences the usage of their apps. Cognate-based views of privacy indicate that privacy concern is dynamic and varies depending on an individual's characteristics and the context. Adopting this view creates the attempt to understand the effect of privacy awareness on user's behavior, considering the moderating effects of individual characteristics and application categories. The study was conducted by surveying smart devices' users and analyzing their responses to the privacy awareness treatment across eight groups of applications. Results indicate that privacy awareness impacts smart device user preferences for app usage. This influence varies depending on individual user characteristics and different application categories.