In this paper, we investigate Saudi parents' privacy concerns regarding their children's smart device applications (apps). To this end, we conducted a survey and analysed 119 responses. Our results show that Saudi parents expressed a high level of concern regarding their children's privacy when using smart device apps. However, they expressed higher concerns about apps' content than privacy issues such as apps' requests to access sensitive data. Furthermore, parents' concerns are not in line with most of the children's installed apps, which contain apps inappropriate for their age, require parental guidance, and request access to sensitive data such as location. We also discuss several aspects of Saudi parents' practices and concerns compared to those reported by Western (mainly from the UK) and Chinese parents in previous reports. We found interesting patterns and established new relationships. For example, Saudi and Western parents show higher levels of privacy concerns than Chinese parents. Finally, we tested 14 privacy practices and concerns against high versus low socioeconomic classes (parents' education, technical background, and income) to find whether there are significant differences between high and low classes (we denote these differences by "digital divide"). Out of 42 tests (14 properties x 3 classes) we found significant differences between high and low classes in 7 tests only. While this is a positive trend overall, it is important to work on bridging these gaps. The results of this paper provide key findings to identify areas of improvement and recommendations, especially for Saudis, which can be used by parents, developers, researchers, regulators, and policy makers.
翻译:在本文中,我们调查沙特父母对其子女智能装置应用程序(应用软件)的隐私问题;为此,我们进行了调查并分析了119份答复;结果显示,沙特父母在使用智能装置应用程序时对子女隐私表示高度关切,但是,他们表示对应用程序内容的关切高于隐私问题的关切,例如应用软件请求获取敏感数据等隐私问题;此外,父母的关切不符合大多数儿童安装的应用程序,这些应用程序包含不适合其年龄的应用程序,需要父母指导,并要求获得敏感数据,如地点。我们还讨论了沙特父母的做法和关切的若干方面,与西方(主要是英国)和中国父母在以往报告中报告的做法和关切相比,沙特父母对子女的隐私表示高度关切;然而,他们表示对应用程序内容的关切高于隐私问题,例如应用软件请求访问敏感数据;此外,我们测试了14个隐私做法和关切与高与低社会经济等级(父母教育、技术背景和收入)相比,发现高等级和低等级(我们用“数码鸿沟”来说明这些差异)。在42个测试中发现了有趣的模式和新关系;例如,沙特父母的14个产业与中国父母的隐私关切程度;最后,我们检测了高等级和低等级之间的这些是重要趋势。