On the road:listening to data subjects’ personal mobility data privacy concerns

Abstract Efficient utilisation of new mobility data-based services and promotion of acceptance of data collection from vehicles and people demand an understanding of mobility data privacy concerns, associated with increasing use of tracking technologies, diverse data usages and complex data collection environments. Understanding privacy concerns enables improved service and system development and identification of appropriate data management solutions that contribute to data subjects’ privacy protection, as well as efficient utilisation of the collected data. This study aimed to explore earlier research findings on privacy concerns evaluation and investigate their validity in mobility data collection. Explorative multimethod research was conducted in a mobility service pilot through data controller interviews, user interviews and a user survey. The study’s results indicated the need to revise and complement existing privacy concerns evaluation in mobility data collection contexts. The primary findings were as follows: (1) Privacy concerns specific to the mobility data collection context exist. (2) Privacy concerns may change during the service use. (3) Users are not necessarily personally worried about their privacy although they ponder on privacy issues. (4) In contrast to traditional ’privacy calculus’ thinking, users’ expected benefits from data disclosure may also be driven by altruistic motives