Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/173248 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
ZEW Discussion Papers No. 17-075
Publisher: 
Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW), Mannheim
Abstract: 
We analyze the data collection strategies of 65,000 developers in the market for mobile applications and track 300,000 applications over four years. Many apps belong to developers with multiple apps. This fact generates variation in the privacy behaviors of the same developer for our analysis. We uncover three stylized facts: First, developers "learn" to use increasingly intrusive data strategies as they become more experienced. Second, intrusive data collection is most likely in apps that target the 13+, and 16+ age category, which raises concerns for the protection of young app consumers. Third, even within developers, critical and atypical permissions predict problematic usage of private user data most successfully. Our findings inform both regulators and scientists who wish to model supply in the market for mobile apps.
Subjects: 
Mobile Applications
Developers
Learning
Data Collection
Privacy
JEL: 
O3
L1
D62
D85
D29
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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