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Examining Power Use and the Privacy Paradox between Intention vs. Actual Use of Mobile Applications

The prevalence of smartphones in our society warrants more research on understanding the characteristics of users and their information privacy behaviors when using mobile apps. This paper investigates the antecedents and consequences of “power use” (i.e., the competence and desire to use technology to its fullest) in the context of informational privacy. In a study with 380 Android users, we examined how gender and users’ education level influence power use, how power use affects users’ intention to install apps and share information with them versus their actual privacy behaviors (i.e., based on the number of apps installed and the total number of “dangerous permission” requests granted to those apps). Our findings revealed an inconsistency in the effect of power use on users’ information privacy behaviors: While the intention to install apps and to share information with them increased with power use, the actual number of installed apps and dangerous permissions ultimately granted decreased with power use. In other words, although the self-reported intentions suggested the opposite, people who scored higher on the power use scale seemed to be more prudent about their informational privacy than people who scored lower on the power use scale. We discuss the implications of this inconsistency and make recommendations for reconciling smartphone users’ informational privacy intentions and behaviors.