Teens and Mobile Apps Privacy

Madden, M., A. Lenhart, S. Cortesi, U. Gasser. (2013). Teens and Mobile Apps Privacy. [Report]. Retrieved from:http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teens-and-Mobile-Apps-Privacy.aspx. The authors of this article did a good job of getting the information out to people about apps and privacy. In a survey of U.S. teens, 58% of teens have downloaded an app to a cell phone or tablet. 51% of teens avoid an app due to concerns about personal information getting out to others. 26% of teens have uninstalled an app because of personal information being shared unwillingly. 46% have just turned off the location trackers because of privacy issues and 59% of girls are more likely to disable location trackers than 37% of boys. 79% of boys compared to 62% of girls are more likely to download an app. 79% of teens living in wealthy neighborhoods are more likely to download apps compared to 60% of lower income teens. The majority of teens who choose free apps say it is because if they don't like it, they can be deleted without losing anything. 46% of teens have turned off the location tracker because they ae worried about people getting into their personal information. Of those 46%, 59% of girls turn off the location tracker compared to 37% of boys. Of the teens who are concerned about privacy, 70% of them have asked for advice from others. 50% of those asking for advice, turn off the trackers compared to 37% of teens who have not asked for advice. It seems to me that teens are concerned with privacy and I hope it is from the education of what can happen and it looks like they really do ask for advice from others, even if some of the teens do not follow the advice of others. I was not surprised to see that girls are more likely to be concerned about privacy than are boys. It is disturbing to me to see that as I have 2 boys of my own. Hopefully with more education we can get all teens to be worried about their privacy while on mobile apps. Report-20 pages