Understanding the Motivations of Young Adults to Engage in Privacy Protection Behavior While Setting Up Smartphone Apps: A Cross-Country Comparison Between Romania and Germany

IF 5.5 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2024-11-19 DOI:10.1177/20563051241298446

Delia Cristina Balaban, Maria Mustățea, Valeriu Frunzaru

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Abstract

Smartphones have become daily companions and store many personal information, including contact lists, photos, and videos. Even though users download smartphone apps for various purposes, they are also data collection instruments. Within the Protection Motivation Theory research streamline, the present research focuses from a comparative perspective on young adults’ concerns and engagement with privacy protection behaviors while setting up smartphone apps. Aiming to assess how threat and coping appraisals relate to privacy protection behavior from a comparative perspective, we conducted an online survey ( N = 931) in Germany ( n = 479) and Romania ( n = 452) with young adults (age 18–26 years). Findings showed differences between the two countries in the sense that individuals’ overarching privacy attitudes transfer to and manifest in the context-specific behavior of setting up apps. For German young adults, susceptibility and severity of the data collection by companies are positively related to privacy protection behavior while setting up apps. Romanians are confident that they can protect their data by setting up apps. For German and Romanian young adults, self-efficacy in online communication was related to response efficacy of privacy protection while configuring apps.

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了解年轻成年人在设置智能手机应用程序时采取隐私保护行为的动机：罗马尼亚与德国的跨国比较

智能手机已成为人们的日常伴侣，并存储了许多个人信息，包括联系人列表、照片和视频。尽管用户下载智能手机应用程序的目的多种多样，但它们也是数据收集工具。在 "保护动机理论 "的研究框架内，本研究从比较的角度出发，重点关注年轻人在设置智能手机应用程序时对隐私保护行为的关注和参与。为了从比较的角度评估威胁和应对评估与隐私保护行为的关系，我们在德国（479 人）和罗马尼亚（452 人）对年轻人（18-26 岁）进行了在线调查（931 人）。调查结果显示，两国在个人总体隐私态度转移到设置应用程序的特定行为中并表现出来的意义上存在差异。对于德国年轻人来说，公司收集数据的敏感性和严重性与他们在设置应用程序时的隐私保护行为呈正相关。罗马尼亚人相信他们可以通过设置应用程序来保护自己的数据。对于德国和罗马尼亚的年轻人来说，在线交流的自我效能与他们在设置应用程序时对隐私保护的反应效能有关。

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来源期刊

Social Media + Society COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

9.20

自引率

3.80%

发文量

111

审稿时长

12 weeks

期刊介绍： Social Media + Society is an open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal that focuses on the socio-cultural, political, psychological, historical, economic, legal and policy dimensions of social media in societies past, contemporary and future. We publish interdisciplinary work that draws from the social sciences, humanities and computational social sciences, reaches out to the arts and natural sciences, and we endorse mixed methods and methodologies. The journal is open to a diversity of theoretic paradigms and methodologies. The editorial vision of Social Media + Society draws inspiration from research on social media to outline a field of study poised to reflexively grow as social technologies evolve. We foster the open access of sharing of research on the social properties of media, as they manifest themselves through the uses people make of networked platforms past and present, digital and non. The journal presents a collaborative, open, and shared space, dedicated exclusively to the study of social media and their implications for societies. It facilitates state-of-the-art research on cutting-edge trends and allows scholars to focus and track trends specific to this field of study.