Exploring the effect of permission notice on users' initial trust to an application store: The case of China's Android application market

• Published in: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI) pp. 67 - 72
• Main Authors: Gu, Jie, Xu, Heng, Hu, An'an, Huang, Lihua
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.05.2015
• Subjects: Androids; China's Android application store; Electronic commerce; Humanoid robots; initial trust; Mobile communication; permission explanation; permission notice; permission sensitivity; Privacy; privacy concerns; Sensitivity
• DOI: 10.1109/ISI.2015.7165941

Privacy invasion via mobile applications is a big issue in the mobile age. This study focuses on China's Android market where a few application stores are available to adopt applications. Recognizing that these stores vary in presenting permission notice, this study examines the effect of two features of a permission notice, i.e., permission sensitivity and permission explanation, on Android users' privacy-related perceptions. Results of our scenario-based study suggest that while the disclosure of highly sensitive permissions increases users' privacy concerns to an application, it also boosts users' initial trust to an unfamiliar application store. Moreover, users' trust to the application store is a necessary condition for the efficiency of permission explanation to reduce users' privacy concerns. In addition to enhancing our theoretical understanding of the role of initial trust in Chinese Android users' elaboration of permission notice, these findings have important implications for both China's application stores and application developers.