What's the value of your privacy? Exploring factors that influence privacy-sensitive contributions to participatory sensing applications

Abstract

Mobile sensing applications leverage sensors embedded in today's mobile phones to gather both user-centric and environmental data in unprecedented quantity and quality. The collection of sensor readings annotated with time and location information may however endanger users' privacy, as they may reveal their routines and habits. Our paper investigates different factors that may foster user contributions to these applications despite the related privacy threats. In particular, we analyze the impact of demographics, incentives, and gathering conditions on both the importance and value of privacy by means of a questionnaire-based user study with 200 anonymous participants. Our results show that young participants already sharing information online are more susceptible to contribute to participatory sensing applications initiated by academic institutions for a mean monthly reward of 50 euros.