Do privacy concerns matter for Millennials? Results from an empirical analysis of Location-Based Services adoption in Germany

• Privacy concerns were found to influence user adoption of location-based services.
• Significantly more concern about externally then internally secondary use of data.
• The model of IUIPC fit the data comparatively better than CFIP.
• Other risk dimensions may play a role in determining usage intention.

Different studies have evaluated the factors that lead to the adoption of new online services in general and particularly for Location-Based Services adoption (LBS), as this is seen as a key application for smartphones. Recently, several security threats and the disclosure of extensive personal data have raised the question, if location data are considered as sensitive data by users. Thus, we use two privacy concern models, namely Concern for Information Privacy (CFIP) and Internet Users’ Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC) to find out. Our sample comprises of 235 individuals between 18 and 34 years (Generation C) from Germany. The results of this study indicate that the second-order factor IUIPC showed better fit for the underlying data than CFIP did. Overall privacy concerns have been found to have an impact on behavioral intentions of users for LBS adoption. Furthermore, other risk dimensions may play a role in determining usage intention, which should be analyzed by further research.