Willingness to Collect Smartphone Sensor Measurements in a Dutch Probability-Based General Population Panel

• Activity Number: 298 - SPEED: Innovations in Survey Sampling Designs: Administrative Data, Record Linkage, Non-Probability Samples, and More
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, July 31, 2018 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Bella Struminskaya* and Vera Toepoel and Peter Lugtig and Barry Schouten
• Companies: and Utrecht University and Utrecht University and CBS
• Keywords: sensor measurements; nonresponse; data collection; panel survey

Abstract

Using smartphone sensors for data collection can offer richer data about human behavior, reduce respondent burden and improve measurement accuracy by replacing self-reports. However, respondents have to be willing to use their smartphone sensors to collect data. If nonwilling respondents differ from those who are, results will be biased. We study the influence of the framing of the consent question, assurance of confidentiality, study sponsor and control over the sensor data on willingness to perform smartphone sensor measurements. We randomly assign respondents of the general population panel (N=2000) to the 4 experimental conditions and ask them about their willingness to share GPS location, take photos & videos and connect wearable devices. For those not willing to collect smartphone sensor data we ask for the reasons of nonwillingness. We report on the longitudinal willingness to collect sensor measurements (random assignment to 1 vs. 6 months for the follow-up question). This study advances understanding of mechanisms of willingness to participate in smartphone sensor measurement and provides advice for practitioners on wording of the consent questions for sensor measurement.