Inattention and Forewarning on Individuals’ Smart Apps Permissions-Consenting Behavior

Abstract

In the era of bring-your-own-device and general data protection regulation, corporate network managers have limited control over the non-corporate-owned devices connected onto their corporation’s network. However, they are principally responsible for the consequent liabilities that may accrue from breaches of individual consumers’ privacy traceable to the network. Hence, this study revisits the notion of information-privacy at the point of contact between an individual end user and the smart-apps that the end user employs. The authors examine the impacts of inattention on consumers’ behavioral reactions to perceived smart-app privacy concerns. The authors find that inattention’s effects on consumers’ behavioral reactions, especially pertaining to re-examination and modification of an app’s default permissions settings, is significant. Forewarning has significant impacts on mitigating inattention and altering consumers’ behavioral reactions pertaining to re-examination and modification of an app’s default permissions settings. Implications of these findings on corporate privacy management are discussed.