The Impact of Apps on the Privacy of Others

In January 2023, 267 Austrians were surveyed on behalf of the Im-Fokus Report for m.core/WU Vienna.  The topic of this survey was privacy on mobile phones in general as well as the impairment of the privacy of others by granting app providers access to one’s own contacts.

Do participants know situations where the actions of private individuals affect the privacy of others? How important is privacy on mobile phones and how problematic is it when data of others is shared with app providers without their consent?

Participants who have already heard of situations in which private individuals influence the privacy of others, e.g. when access is given to one’s own contacts during an app download, are also generally more likely to deal with the topic of “privacy on the mobile phone” (t(162) = 4.219, p = <.001).

With increasing age, the topic of privacy on mobile phones becomes more important for the participants (r = .190, p < .001) and they also consider it more often (r = .263, p < .001).

The survey was answered by 267 participants (50.9% female, 48.7% male, 0.4% diverse), the mean age being 42.43 years (standard deviation 12.81). Men and women did not differ significantly from each other in any of the variables studied.

Find the full study in German here!