Factors shaping privacy trade-offs in app downloads: The role of privacy ratings, friends' recommendation and resignation among young adults and adults.

Mobile apps not only offer numerous benefits but also entail the risk of sharing sensitive data with third parties. This research addresses which factors shape privacy trade-offs among young adults and adults when downloading apps. The investigation involved two experimental vignette studies: In Study 1 (N = 500, 79.6% women), we examined young adults, mostly university students, aged 16-29 years to assess if low and high privacy-ratings for apps recommended by friends or a social media platform and offering relevant developmental opportunities affect the probability of downloading them. In Study 2 (N = 148, 70.9% women), we examined users aged 18-69 years to assess if low and high privacy-rated apps recommended by friends or found when browsing online, age-related differences, and privacy resignation affect the probability of sharing data with them. In both studies, we found that participants considered privacy ratings when deciding whether to download or share data with an app. While Study 1 found no differences for apps offering relevant developmental opportunities, both studies show a higher reported probability of downloading and sharing data with apps when these were recommended by friends compared to the control conditions (social media platform; browsing). Additionally, Study 2 demonstrated that participants under 29 years of age and with higher levels of resignation exhibited a higher probability of sharing data. These findings highlight that privacy ratings can support privacy decisions at the app download stage, but also emphasize the need for future interventions, especially for younger and resigned users.