Anonymity Feature in Android Mobile Apps for Interest Groups

Abstract

Mobile apps that provide platforms for interest-oriented communities (or interest groups) allow people with common interests to gather virtually in sharing their shared passion and ideas. While the participation of such apps is voluntary, some people feel uncomfortable revealing their real identities due to privacy and safety concerns. Thus, some mobile apps provide an anonymity feature that allows people to join the group anonymously. Nevertheless, little is known on how the anonymity feature relates to the people who prefer to join interest groups. Thus in this paper, we hypothesize that mobile apps users that highly value interest groups will also highly appreciate the anonymity feature provided in the interest groups. In particular, we explored the market segment of mobile Android apps with anonymity features within selected interest groups. A pilot study was conducted where 34 Android apps users, primarily Malaysian, filled up the questionnaires designed to investigate the anonymity feature in the apps. The results of the pilot study show that most Android apps nowadays offer their users to remain anonymous. The findings show that most users who give a high score on the importance of interest-based groups also provide a high score on the importance of the anonymity feature offered by the mobile apps providers.