Mobile content and commerce organisation MEF has published the results of its Global Consumer Trust report for 2014. The study, which looks at privacy, transparency and security concerns, was carried out in partnership with online security company AVG Technologies.

According to the report, the single largest obstacle to purchasing goods and services via a mobile device is trust. 30% of mobile media users said this was the major issue, even though just 9% claimed to have had a negative experience.

Overall, 40% of respondents named trust as a possible barrier to mobile purchases. That’s an increase from the previous studies in 2013 (35%) and 2011 (27%). If this trend continues, half of all mobile media users will be discouraged from purchasing via their mobile device by 2015.

In addition, 37% of people said a lack of trust prevented them from using apps installed on their phone, while 65% were unhappy sharing personal information with an app.

Despite these concerns, most consumers said they didn’t take any action to protect their privacy; just 24% were prepared to read long-form privacy policies and less than half could be bothered with short-form text.

Andrew Bud, Global Chair of MEF, said “This report shows remarkably few consumers are yet ready to take action regarding their concerns about trust in mobile apps. This should not mislead our industry. With a large and growing majority of consumers expressing concern, the mobile industry cannot afford to be complacent about mobile users’ current tolerance.”

The MEF survey was carried out by On Device Research and analysed responses from 10,000 mobile media users in 13 countries.

[MEF Global Consumer Trust 2014 Executive Summary]