Taiwanese university students’ smartphone use and the privacy paradox

Abstract

With the prevalence of smart devices and wireless Internet, privacy has become a pivotal matter in governmental, academic, and technological fields. Our study aims to understand Taiwanese university students’ privacy concerns and protective behaviours in relation to online targeting ads and their habitual smartphone usage. Surveying 810 valid subjects, our results first propose that ad relevance has direct bearing on attention to ads. Second, ad relevance inversely correlates with privacy concerns (i.e. descending personal control and surging corporate power) and protective behaviours (self-filtering and ad evasion). Third and finally, neither privacy concerns nor protective behaviours have a negative bearing on habitual smartphone usage. Opposite to previous research, our study concludes that Taiwanese college students exhibit zero privacy paradox, owing to no signs of privacy concern incited by mobile targeting ads, no evidence of significant protective behaviours, and no decreasing habitual smartphone usage out of privacy concern and protection. Our findings indicate Taiwanese university students’ shaky awareness of potential risks and crises from exposure to vulnerable online privacy management. To deal with this, we suggest educating youths’ understandings of digital jeopardy by experts is urgently needed more so than just technical tutorials of privacy settings. Con la prevalencia de dispositivos inteligentes e Internet inalámbrico, la privacidad se ha convertido en un tema esencial en materias gubernamentales, académicas y tecnológicas. Nuestro estudio se dedica específicamente a entender las preocupaciones de los estudiantes universitarios taiwaneses en privacidad y comportamientos protectores en relación con la publicidad online y el uso habitual de teléfonos inteligentes. Con 810 muestras válidas encuestadas, nuestros resultados revelan que: 1) La relevancia de la publicidad tiene un efecto directo en su atención; 2) Está asociada inversamente a las preocupaciones de privacidad (por ejemplo, control personal descendiente y poder corporativo ascendiente) y comportamientos protectores (evasión de anuncios y autocensura); 3) La preocupación por ña privacidad ni los comportamientos protectores tuvieron efecto negativo en el uso habitual de los smartphones. Nuestro estudio concluye que no hay paradojas de la privacidad halladas en estos jóvenes taiwaneses debido a cambios en su preocupación por la privacidad, generada por la publicidad personalizada en su móvil. Ello evidencia un cambio significativo en los comportamientos protectores. En suma, estos universitarios taiwaneses tienen una débil apreciación de los riesgos potenciales y crisis a los que una vulnerable gestión de la privacidad online les podría exponer. Para abordarlo, una educación que cultive la comprensión de los peligros digitales para los jóvenes es muy recomendable y requiere urgentemente tutoriales técnicos sobre privacidad.

Young Adults View Smartphone Tracking Technologies for COVID-19 as Acceptable: The Case of Taiwan

“…Establishing acceptance for tracking technologies will of course benefit Taiwan, but may also benefit other countries that are culturally similar. Taiwan has shown different attitudes to Western countries regarding privacy attitudes [27], their communal sense of self [28], and approaches to governmental public health surveillance (e.g., compare Taiwan's rapid COVID-19 response and the sharing of public health records, to the response by America, the United Kingdom, or Australia) [1]. These differences may make the introduction of tracking technologies more effective in Taiwan and countries with similar cultures, as public health may be viewed as more important than individualistic notions of privacy and security [29].…”