How Italian news affects downloads of two public applications: An event study

Abstract

What are the reasons that lead a user to adopt and use a new technology or application? In our smartphone there are an average of 80 applications but only half are used daily. There are different reasons, different variables, external and internal factors that lead to the adoption of one technology over another. Consumers can make an evaluation of costs and benefits, of utility or adopt it because it would be a detriment not to have it. Privacy is certainly one of the fundamental issues. In literature, the difference that is created between the attitude of individuals and their actual behavior is defined as the "privacy paradox", precisely to indicate how users, despite showing some concern about disclosure of their data, are at the same time prone to release them in exchange for tangible or intangible benefits this because people find it difficult to associate a specific value to their privacy and therefore, the value of protecting it.Trust My thesis focuses on how much has traditional communication in a critical period, such as a global pandemic, influenced, in a positive or negative way, on the adoption of two different public applications such as App IO and App Immuni? My paper will answer these questions and will analyze in an empiric way, with an event study, how communication has affected the downloads of these applications that have achieved conflicting results.