Various Sociodemographic Factors and User Privacy Awareness

As technology advances, many people with visual disabilities take advantage of emerging technologies (e.g., Seeing AI, TapTapSee, and BeMyEyes apps) to gain better access to information. Yet, there is a likelihood that those with visual disabilities are vulnerable to privacy threats as they are less likely to adequately read visual cues and software notifications that are designed to help users to protect themselves and their data from privacy invasion. Unfortunately, little is known about how they perceive privacy policies of the assistive apps, especially depending on sociodemographic backgrounds. To address the knowledge gap, this study invited 30 individuals with visual disabilities to measure their understanding level of privacy policies of the apps but also their tendency level to adopt the apps after being educated on the privacy policies. Individual differences were found, depending on their sociodemographic backgrounds (i.e., vision, age, education, health conditions, race/ethnicity, and living conditions). Given the results, this study suggests that educational interventions are needed to properly inform users with visual disabilities about how their personal information are used, shared, and protected while using the assistive apps, which is anticipated to contribute to safe practices of use.