Smartphone users value their privacy and are willing to pay for it, CU-Boulder economists find
Average smartphone users are willing to pay up to $5 extra for a typical application—or “app”—that won’t monitor their locations, contact lists and other personal information, a study conducted by two economists at the University of Colorado Boulder has found.
The researchers believe theirs is the first economic study to gauge the monetary value smartphone users place on privacy. That value is measured in consumers’ “willingness to pay” for five different kinds of digital anonymity. (more…)