Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Mar 5, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 15, 2022 - Apr 12, 2022
Date Accepted: Mar 14, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Evaluating Mobile Apps Targeting Older Adults: A Descriptive Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Smartphone use has increased dramatically and, in parallel, a market for mobile applications has emerged. The business model of targeted advertisements, allows for collection of personal information, often without user knowledge. Older adults comprise a rapidly growing demographic potentially vulnerable to exploitation.
Objective:
This study evaluated data collection, storage and sharing practices of mobile apps targeting older adults.
Methods:
An environmental scan was conducted using the Google search engine and typing “apps for older adults.” The first 25 sites comprised the primary data for this study. Apps were organized by descriptive features, existence of a privacy policy, price and evidence supporting the recommended product.
Results:
A total of 133 mobile apps were identified and promoted as being the best “apps for older adults” of which 83% included a privacy policy. Fewer apps designated in the “medical” category included a privacy policy. Two explained reasons specific app recommendations, whereas the 23 remaining did not provide rationale for recommendations.
Conclusions:
Results suggest that apps targeting older adults disclose data management information. Research is needed to determine whether these privacy policies are readable, succinct, and incorporate all data use and sharing practices to mitigate ethical concerns and promote autonomy of older adults. Clinical Trial: N/A
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.