Data Sharing in Mobile Apps — User Privacy Expectations in Europe

Although privacy on mobile apps has increased through tougher permission guidelines and new data protection legislation, developers still make profit of sharing data of and about their users with advertisers or other services. In light of the continuous debates on privacy and mobile apps we wanted to understand users’ expectations of privacy when it comes to different app types and data sharing practices. We conducted a survey on MTurk (N = 103) to learn more about privacy awareness and expectations. We found that 9 out of 10 users suspect that they are being tracked across different mobile applications and that they have a good understanding of what information is necessary for certain types of mobile applications. 65% of participants also expect that, on average, 2-6 different services receive their personal information and 93% think that at least a minority of mobile applications share their personal information without their consent.