American teenagers love their smartphones but not the apps that collect their personal information or their location data. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project, nearly 50% of American teenagers avoid downloading apps over privacy concerns and 26% of them deleted an app because they found out that that it was collecting their personal information they didn’t want to share.

The study shows that teen girls are more concerned with their privacy than teen boys. Nearly half of them turned off location sharing feature on their phones just cause they don’t want to share that information with people they don’t know.

Mary Madden, senior researcher for the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project said:

“Teens are on the front lines of figuring out the complex world of privacy management of on their mobile devices. They realize that cell phones can be used to monitor their whereabouts, and they will avoid apps if they feel like the data requests are unnecessary or excessive.”

One interesting point made by the Pew Center was that younger teens, ages between 12-13, are more concerned over privacy and least likely to download apps that require them to share their personal information than older teens. Not only should they be careful about downloading apps on their phones, but they also need to be careful what they write or share on social media. While this is a good move by teens, they also have to remember that they should really be careful about what they say or share on the internet – especially on Facebook or Twitter.

[via LA Times and Image via i-Sight]