A newly released Pew Research Center survey from February 2015 finds that users place significant emphasis on how much information their apps collect from them: 90% of app users indicate that having clear information about how apps will access or use their personal data is “very” or “somewhat” important to them when deciding to download an app.

Once that permission is granted, the apps can amass insights from the data collected by the apps on things such as the physical activities and movements of users, their browsing and media-use habits, their social media use and their personal networks, the photos and videos they shoot and share, and their core communications. Permissions are the mechanism by which app developers disclose how their apps will interact with users’ devices and personal information on devices running Google’s Android operating system. But actually accessing a device’s data or capabilities requires app developers to request it from end users in one way or another – often by asking users to click through an “I accept” box. This puts apps at the center of debates about privacy in the digital age.Īll of this information can be crucial to the functioning of mobile apps. As users go about their lives, their mobile devices produce a vast trove of personal information and data, ranging from the user’s location to a history of his or her phone calls or text message interactions. In order to function, apps may require access to both the capabilities of the devices they reside on as well as the user information contained on those devices. They allow users to tailor their powerful pocket computer into a device with hundreds of potential uses that meet their owners’ specific needs. They can serve a nearly unlimited range of functions - from simple tools like a calculator to advanced digital assistants. Today, 68% of Americans own a smartphone of some kind and an increasing number of digital interactions occur within the context of mobile apps.Īpps (short for “applications”) are programs that users can download to their smartphone or tablet computer.

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