Trading Data for Health
mHealth apps are growing in popularity among smartphone users. Such apps often contain social features that enable users to compare their behavior with others but to function, mHealth apps require users to share health information which is considered a threat to individuals’ privacy. Building on social comparison theory and research on privacy decision-making, we investigate the effects of users’ social comparison orientation and privacy attitudes as well as the potential mediating effect of health information disclosure on users’ intention to use a dietary app. Relying on a PLS-based structural-equation model in a sample of N = 528 participants, our study supports claims of a positive effe…
Processing privacy information and decision-making for smartphone apps among young German smartphone users
While privacy behaviour is generally equated with self-disclosure, other forms of behaviour that 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 decision-making within a dual-process model of the attitude–behaviour relationship and the role of privacy attitudes in two kinds of information processing: (1) spontaneous, heuristic processes that rely on automated attitude activation and (2) elaborate, cognitive processes that rely on behavioural intentions to guide behaviour. We used a quasi-experimental design to investigate app decision-making processes for N = 89 participants in N = 254 decis…