An experiment series on app information privacy concerns

The diffusion of smart mobile devices and therewith apps into everyday life comes along with the permanent disclosure of sensitive and personal data. Despite the concerns individuals have regarding their information privacy, they act oppositional. However, through the permanent disclosure of sensitive and personal information, privacy of individuals is at risk. The risk of privacy is intensified by the classification of the mobile app download and the usage decision processing as low effort processes without much deliberation. Therefore, the article follows the call of Dinev et al. (2015) to consider principles from behavioural economics and social psychology to investigate its influences on privacy decisions. This is operationalised with six independent experiments to examine the influence of cognitive biases on app information privacy concerns. The results support the underlying assumption of app decision-making as a low effort process and confirmed that different stimuli do influence privacy concerns of individuals. This research contributes to the increasing importance of understanding individuals' behaviour in digital ecosystems.