This article was originally published as: Cotton, H., & Bolan, C. (2011). User perceptions of end user license agreements in the smartphone environment. Paper presented at the 9th Australian Information Security Management Conference, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia. Original article available here.
With the increasing usage of smartphones as a computing platform has come alongside the movement of End User License Agreements to such platforms. The smartphone platform brings new issues to these agreements especially with the advent of app stores, which allow access to a large consumer base to small or unknown developers. This survey conducted in Perth, Western Australia looked at user perceptions of EULAs on smartphone devices. The results show that a majority of users do not read such agreements citing issues of readability and length. Even amongst those that do read the agreements there is a majority feeling that such agreements will never be used against them.