ERIC Number: EJ1220431
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1134-3478
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Taiwanese University Students' Smartphone Use and the Privacy Paradox
Comunicar: Media Education Research Journal, v27 n60 p61-69 2019
With the prevalence of smart devices and wireless Internet, privacy has become a pivotal matter in governmental, academic, and technological fields. Our study aims to understand Taiwanese university students' privacy concerns and protective behaviours in relation to online targeting ads and their habitual smartphone usage. Surveying 810 valid subjects, our results first propose that ad relevance has direct bearing on attention to ads. Second, ad relevance inversely correlates with privacy concerns (i.e. descending personal control and surging corporate power) and protective behaviours (self-filtering and ad evasion). Third and finally, neither privacy concerns nor protective behaviours have a negative bearing on habitual smartphone usage. Opposite to previous research, our study concludes that Taiwanese college students exhibit zero privacy paradox, owing to no signs of privacy concern incited by mobile targeting ads, no evidence of significant protective behaviours, and no decreasing habitual smartphone usage out of privacy concern and protection. Our findings indicate Taiwanese university students' shaky awareness of potential risks and crises from exposure to vulnerable online privacy management. To deal with this, we suggest educating youths' understandings of digital jeopardy by experts is urgently needed more so than just technical tutorials of privacy settings.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Telecommunications, Handheld Devices, College Students, Risk, Advertising, Privacy, Student Behavior, Social Media, Student Attitudes
Grupo Comunicar Ediciones. Marina 8, Atico B - 21001 Huelva, Spain. Tel: 34-959-248480; e-mail: info@grupocomunicar.com; Web site: https://www.revistacomunicar.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Taiwan (Taipei)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A

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