Understanding how apps use your data

An in-depth study by Roy Morgan into Australian attitudes towards privacy in the online world shows that while Australians are concerned about how their personal data is being used, they lack understanding of how different apps use their data.

This report focuses on aspects of the Connected Consumer Survey that relate to the behaviour, preferences and plans of smartphone users in Australia. It focuses on respondents’ usage of mobile services and devices, satisfaction with their services and churn, as well as over-the-top (OTT) and digital economy usage trends.

Over 90% of Australians are either ‘not sure’ or only ‘somewhat understand’ how several leading apps use and/or share their data. And, 94.6% of Australians using Apple apps are either ‘not sure’ or only ‘somewhat understand’ how Apple uses or shares their personal data – higher than any other specific brand mentioned in the survey.

Research Question: “If you have used these services in the past 12 months. Please indicate your understanding of how they use your data: ‘I’m not sure how they use and/or share my data’, ‘I somewhat understand how they use and/or share my data’, ‘I believe I fully understand how they use and/or share my data’.”

Note: The % of Australians who are either ‘not sure’ or ‘somewhat understand’ how they use and/or share my data.

Following closely behind are leading social networks including Twitter (94.3% of Twitter users), Instagram (94.0% of Instagram users), Snapchat (93.7% of Snapchat users), Messenger (92.8% of Messenger users), Google (91.9% of Google users) and Facebook (90.9% of Facebook users).

Generic ‘Other’ apps fare even worse with 95.8% of Australians who use ‘Other’ apps ‘not sure’ or only ‘somewhat understanding’ how these other apps use or share their personal data. 94.4% of users of smart home devices and 94.1% of users of online sales apps are also ‘not sure’ or only ‘somewhat understand’ how these apps use or share their personal data.

The study of 967 respondents looked at how often people read and accepted the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions when engaging online with websites and apps for social networks such as Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat as well as online shopping sites, financial sites, medical and health services sites, online news and newspaper sites and Government sites.

The report looks in depth at how people protect their data and information and their attitudes to companies and governments using their information and sharing with third parties.

Detailed analysis by age, gender and geographic region are included in this report.

For more information on the results of the survey and a report providing a detailed view of the findings from this study into privacy in the digital world please view the Privacy Report here:

From:  http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7661-online-privacy-concerns-social-media-july-2018-201807130704