BACKGROUND: Smartphone use has increased dramatically and, in parallel, a market for mobile apps, including health apps, has emerged. The business model of targeted mobile app advertisements allows for the collection of personal and potentially sensitive information, often without user knowledge. Older adults comprise a rapidly growing demographic that is potentially vulnerable to exploitation by those accessing data collected via these apps.
OBJECTIVE: This research examined apps that claimed to be useful to older adults with a goal of (1) classifying the functionality of each app, (2) identifying whether a privacy policy existed and was accessible, and (3) evaluating evidence that could support claims of value to older adults.
METHODS: An environmental scan was conducted using the Google search engine and typing \"apps for older adults.\" The first 25 sites that this search returned comprised the primary data for this study. Data were organized by descriptive features of purpose (eg, health, finance, and utility), the existence of an electronically accessible privacy policy, price, and evidence supporting each recommended mobile app.
RESULTS: A total of 133 mobile apps were identified and promoted as being the best \"apps for older adults.\" Of these 133 mobile apps, 83% (n=110) included a privacy policy. Fewer apps designated in the \"medical\" category included a privacy policy than those classified otherwise.
CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that most mobile apps targeting older adults include a privacy policy. Research is needed to determine whether these privacy policies are readable, succinct, and incorporate accessible data use and sharing practices to mitigate potential risks, particularly when collecting potentially sensitive health information.

Around 1970, high numbers of traffic casualties among cyclists led to the creation of numerous local protest movements in the Netherlands. While activists employed protest strategies, their main interest lie in the way they exemplify a highly successful instance of \"lay expertise\"; the idea that users of a technology have a fundamentally different and valuable perspective on a technology than experts or system-builders. Specifically, cyclists claimed to be more knowledgeable about cycling conditions and safety than the state-employed engineers and traffic experts who built the roads and cycling path network. A key actor in this story is the Dutch Cyclists\' Union (Fietsersbond), a national platform of local action groups formed in 1975. These activists used the cycling experience of everyday utilitarian cyclists to compile maps and blacklists of locations where cycling was dangerous, unpleasant, uncomfortable, or otherwise discouraging. In doing so, they successfully claimed legitimacy as a valuable knowledge partner for local engineers and policymakers. As a result, they gained some level of influence within local governments, a relation which in the intervening years has only grown stronger. This case study shows how users can shape socio-technical systems bottom-up, and can therefore to an extent be seen as a successful example of co-construction of technology.
Um 1970 führte die hohe Zahl von Verkehrsunfällen unter Radfahrern zur Gründung zahlreicher lokaler Protestbewegungen in den Niederlanden. Obwohl die Aktivisten auch Proteststrategien einsetzten, besteht das Hauptinteresse dieses Artikels in der Art und Weise, wie sie ein äußerst erfolgreiches Beispiel für „Laienkompetenz“ darstellen. Die Idee dahinter ist, dass Nutzer (einer Technologie) eine wertvolle und grundlegend andere Perspektive auf eine Technologie haben als Experten oder Systembauer: Radfahrer gaben in Umfragen an, mehr über die Bedingungen und die Sicherheit von Fahrrädern zu wissen als die staatlich angestellten Ingenieure und Verkehrsexperten, die die Systeme des Straßen- und Radwegenetzes gebaut haben. Ein Hauptakteur dieser Geschichte ist der Fietsersbond [Radfahrerbund], eine nationale Plattform lokaler Aktionsgruppen, die 1975 gegründet wurde. Diese Aktivisten nutzten die Mobilitätserfahrung täglicher Radfahrer, um Karten und Liste von Orten zusammenzustellen, an denen das Radfahren gefährlich und unangenehm oder auf andere Weise beschwerlich war. Damit beanspruchten sie erfolgreich Legitimität als wertvoller Wissenspartner für lokale Ingenieure und politische Entscheidungsträger. Infolgedessen gewannen sie einen gewissen Einfluss auf die Kommunalverwaltung; eine Beziehung, die seitdem immer stärker geworden ist. Diese Fallstudie zeigt, wie Nutzer sozio-technische Systeme „von unten“ gestalten können; sie kann daher in gewissem Maße als erfolgreiches Beispiel für die kooperative Konstruktion von Technik angesehen werden.

Purpose: This study aims to construct a theoretical framework that explains how users with comorbidity of substance use and mental illness/neuropsychiatric disorders portray user participation in social work encounters.Methods: To construct this framework a constructivist grounded theory approach was used with semi-structured qualitative interviews with 12 users.Results: The main concern of the participants was the low trust in the social services and perceiving that this lack of trust is mutual. Establishing mutual trust is a social process that cuts through the whole framework. In the framework, prerequisites for participation are explained. The prerequisites are users being motivated and having the willingness to stop using drugs and receiving support, making use of user and staff knowledge and decision-making abilities and accessing help and support.Conclusion: Unlike previous frameworks, the model describes participation as a social process and does not explain participation at different levels of power. The results suggest that staff need to be aware of low trust perceptions and work on establishing mutual trust. In addition, the staff need to see each user as an individual and consider how the user would prefer to be involved in decision-making.

Research has shown that older adults interact with products less intuitively than younger adults, and that familiarity is an essential element of intuitive interaction. This paper reports on the findings of two empirical studies that examined familiarity in younger and older adults. Each study comprised 32 participants over four age groups. The first study required participants to use their own contemporary products in their homes in order to investigate older adults\' familiarity with them, and how this familiarity differed from that of younger adults. Older people were less familiar with their own contemporary products that younger people. The second study aimed to investigate differences in familiarity between younger and older adults while using products that they did not own and were likely to be less familiar with. When using products not already familiar to them, both middle aged and older adults showed significantly lower familiarity than younger people. The significance of this research is in its empirical findings about familiarity differences between age groups. It has been recognised that the identification and understanding of differences in familiarity will enable designers to design more intuitive interfaces and systems for both younger and older cohorts. The implications of the findings from the two studies reported here are discussed in light of this recognition.