Information Privacy and User Satisfaction in Mobile Applications: A Cross-National Analysis

The collection and sharing of personal data by mobile apps pose a threat to users’ privacy. Mobile app providers are required to provide information on data collection with privacy labels. Drawing on privacy calculus and signaling theory, we analyze how privacy labels influence user satisfaction measured through app ratings. We collect a dataset from the Apple App Store, encompassing around 700,000 apps for six countries and apply propensity score matching to control for potential confounders and report average treatment effects on the treated. We find that, in all countries, not collecting data is associated with a lower user satisfaction. Moreover, tracking data, despite its privacy implications, is associated with higher user satisfaction in most countries. These results suggest that users may prioritize other factors over privacy concerns when evaluating apps. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that cultural differences do not significantly influence the relationship between information privacy and user satisfaction.