2025 VOLUME 5 ISSUE 1
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Evaluating privacy policy compliance through user perception: A case study of Chinese social media applications
AUTHOR
Xu Wang, Fang Xie, Pengshuang Gu, Dongyang Shi, Kanghao Gu
ABSTRACT
In the era of digitalization and intelligence, growing user concerns over personal privacy have elevated the compliance of app privacy policies to a critical determinant in users' selection and trust of applications. This paper evaluates the compliance of social media apps' privacy policies, aiming to provide a reference for the scientific Formulation and optimization of social media apps' privacy policies. This study selects privacy policy texts from eight prominent social media applications in China as research samples. From the perspective of user perception, it establishes a comprehensive compliance evaluation framework for social media applications, encompassing four critical dimensions: (1) text readability, (2) collection and storage of personal information, (3) sharing and utilization of personal information, and (4) information security measures along with rights protection mechanisms. The research employs a dual-method approach to collect user perception data regarding app privacy policy compliance: hierarchical analysis and structured questionnaire surveys. Subsequently, a comprehensive evaluation is conducted utilizing four distinct methodologies: the matter-element extension model, TOPSIS evaluation, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, and VIKOR evaluation. The evaluation outcomes are then systematically compared and cross-validated to ensure methodological robustness and result reliability. While the assessment results indicate a relatively positive compliance status of privacy policies among social media applications in China, the four previously mentioned dimensions continue to present notable challenges, including insufficient readability, ambiguous Formulations, and critical content omissions. In response to these identified shortcomings, this study proposes targeted optimization strategies to enhance policy effectiveness and user protection.
KEYWORDS
User perception; Social media apps; Privacy policy; Compliance evaluation; Evaluation indicator system
