IS PRIVACY INSPIRED BY WELLBEING? A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Abstract

Most patients with chronic diseases aim to successfully manage their disease and treatment in everyday life. Although many mobile applications are available to help them achieving this, there is still evidence of the low adherence from chronic patients to those applications. Obstacles include poor usability, lack of resources or low IT literacy, as well as the lack of trust in the privacy and security of mobile applications. Beyond the technical measures, the perception of privacy may not be a fixed concept but influenced by factors such as context, emotions and wellbeing. The aim of this paper is to investigate how health outcomes can alter the perception of privacy and trust in the use of mhealth applications, by patients with chronic respiratory diseases. Findings show that there may be significant links between patients’ characteristics, their privacy perception and the type of personal data involved. The preliminary results motivate us to further research this topic.