Report Shows Decrease in Trust of Mobile Apps

Mobile Ecosystem Forum, a global trade group that addresses and researches the issues related to mobile device usage, recently released its annual Global Consumer Trust Report. This marks the third edition of the report, and for the third year in a row, it shows that the biggest barrier to mobile growth is trust in application security.

In a nutshell: consumers want to know that their personal data will remain safe when using mobile apps. More than a third of respondents (36 percent), said they were cautious about downloading apps and using mobile-based services because they were concerned about privacy. More than half of respondents (52 percent) even reported deleting apps that seemed to have suspicious privacy practices. In addition, 38 percent said they stopped using apps that worried them, and 21 percent said they had left negative reviews or warned friends about troublesome apps.

Rimma Perelmuter, the CEO of MEF, commented on this trend and called for a higher level of enterprise engagement with consumers to prove that their applications are safe to use.

“MEF’s 4th Global Consumer Trust Report highlights the significant consequences of consumers’ growing concerns around data privacy and security on the mobile ecosystem,” Perelmuter said. “Behavioral trends among consumers such as deleting apps or ceasing to use apps already downloaded are clear indicators that the industry has to do more to build a sustained and trusted relationship with consumers.”

These individuals who are leery of using mobile apps have been dubbed “reluctant sharers.” Harvey Anderson, the chief legal officer of AVG Technologies, which partnered with MEF in this report, concurred that the industry could to more to educate these reluctant patrons and actually do more to secure their programs that run on mobile devices. If something looks suspicious to a consumer, he or she may decide to delete or refuse to use an app in question, and the only way to resolve that situation is for businesses to prove that their apps are safe, construct them to work in non-suspicious ways, and bolster apps’ defenses with industry best practices.

The MEF report studied the responses of more than 5000 consumers in Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, South Africa, the U.K, and the U.S. Consumer consensus that they are willing to pay more for apps that would not share data with third parties (47 percent) and that they are significantly less likely to share personal data with an app (a drop from 21 percent in 2013 who were willing to share to just 6 percent in 2015) is a strong sign that the market can do better to capture consumer trust.

As much as trust may have dropped in recent years, it could gain that much back by the end of the decade with support from all parties involved. Largely, app developers and smartphone/tablet developers can play a strong role here. Consumers will also have to keep their ears perked for any change in the market’s tide. Their safety in the mobile atmosphere could depend on it.