Abstract: Privacy has become an important factor affecting the integration of middle-aged and elderly users into digital life. To explore the differences of privacy concern behaviors of middle-aged and elderly users in different mobile application situations can better understand the privacy attitude and behavior of this special group and help them improve their privacy protection awareness. In this paper, we set four mobile application scenarios of communication, information acquisition, intelligent life, leisure and entertainment, and use multi-factor analysis of variance to explore the differences of privacy concern behavior of middle-aged and elderly users in the four scenarios, as well as the interaction of information sensitivity, network knowledge and experience, and privacy infringement experience. The results show that there are significant differences in privacy concerns among middle-aged and elderly users in different mobile application situations. Different levels of information sensitivity and privacy violation experience have significant effects on privacy concerns, but have no significant interaction with mobile application situations. Different levels of network knowledge experience have no significant effect on privacy concerns, but have significant interaction with mobile application situations.

Key words: Middle aged and elderly users, Mobile applications, Privacy concerns, Situational differentiation, User behavior