FOR RELEASE SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

More Than Half of Mobile Users Avoid Certain Apps Due to Privacy Concerns

Fully 54% of mobile application users have avoided certain apps and 30% have uninstalled an app due to concerns about the way personal information is shared or collected by the app.

BY Shawn Fielding

FOR MEDIA OR OTHER INQUIRIES:

Communications Department
202.419.4372
www.pewresearch.org

RECOMMENDED CITATION

Pew Research Center, September 2012, "More Than Half of Mobile Users Avoid Certain Apps Due to Privacy Concerns"

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Table of contents

More Than Half of Mobile Users Avoid Certain Apps Due to Privacy Concerns

Fully 54% of mobile application users have avoided certain apps and 30% have uninstalled an app due to concerns about the way personal information is shared or collected by the app.

 

More than half of mobile application users have uninstalled or avoided certain apps due to concerns about the way personal information is shared or collected by the app, according to a nationally representative telephone survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

In all, 88% of U.S. adults now own cell phones, and 43% say they download cell phone applications or “apps” to their phones. Among app users, the survey found:

  • 54% of app users have decided to not install a cell phone app when they discovered how much personal information they would need to share in order to use it
  • 30% of app users have uninstalled an app that was already on their cell phone because they learned it was collecting personal information that they didn’t wish to share

Taken together, 57% of all app users have either uninstalled an app over concerns about having to share their personal information, or declined to install an app in the first place for similar reasons.