Give or buy contexts and internet experience as a factor differentiating of readiness to provide different types of personal data in m-commerce

Abstract

Studies show that privacy concerns are an important factor in m-commerce and m-buyers are often not ready to disclose private data to m-shops. An e-questionnaire survey was used to gather opinions in three groups – ca. 160 Poles, ca.160 Ukrainians and ca.130 Romanians, to study decisions of potential consumers concerning disclosure of personal data when downloading paid or free mobile applications in 3 different contexts: downloading an attractive app to their smartphone as a gift, as a promo purchase, or from a well-known brand. The study showed that different kinds of personal data have different fragility levels. The e-mail had the lowest level of concern, postal address a medium level, and ID and credit card numbers the highest. Context was also shown to change the kind of data respondents are willing to exchange for an attractive app. When the measure of internet experience was subjective to the length of internet use, people with higher internet experience were not found to be more unlikely to download an attractive app to their smartphone, if a condition of downloading it was providing personal identification data, in comparison with persons with low internet experience. When internet experience was measured by social norms (living in a country with a higher e-readiness index), persons with higher experience levels were less likely to download apps requiring the provision of personal data. The text ends with recommendations and suggestions for further research.