An Empirical Study on Android for Saving Non-shared Data on Public Storage

With millions of apps that can be downloaded from official or third-party market, Android has become one of the most popular mobile platforms today. These apps help people in all kinds of ways and thus have access to lots of user's data that in general fall into three categories: sensitive data, data to be shared with other apps, and non-sensitive data not to be shared with others. For the first and second type of data, Android has provided very good storage models: an app's private sensitive data are saved to its private folder that can only be access by the app itself, and the data to be shared are saved to public storage (either the external SD card or the emulated SD card area on internal FLASH memory). But for the last type, i.e., an app's non-sensitive and non-shared data, there is a big problem in Android's current storage model which essentially encourages an app to save its non-sensitive data to shared public storage that can be accessed by other apps. At first glance, it seems no problem to do so, as those data are non-sensitive after all, but it implicitly assumes that app developers could correctly identify all sensitive data and prevent all possible information leakage from private-but-non-sensitive data. In this paper, we will demonstrate that this is an invalid assumption with a thorough survey on information leaks of those apps that had followed Android's recommended storage model for non-sensitive data. Our studies showed that highly sensitive information from billions of users can be easily hacked by exploiting the mentioned problematic storage model. Although our empirical studies are based on a limited set of apps, the identified problems are never isolated or accidental bugs of those apps being investigated. On the contrary, the problem is rooted from the vulnerable storage model recommended by Android. To mitigate the threat, we also propose a defense framework

The Lifecycle and Cascade of WeChat Social Messaging Groups

Social instant messaging services are emerging as a transformative form with which people connect, communicate with friends in their daily life - they catalyze the formation of social groups, and they bring people stronger sense of community and connection. However, research community still knows little about the formation and evolution of groups in the context of social messaging - their lifecycles, the change in their underlying structures over time, and the diffusion processes by which they develop new members. In this paper, we analyze the daily usage logs from WeChat group messaging platform - the largest standalone messaging communication service in China - with the goal of understanding the processes by which social messaging groups come together, grow new members, and evolve over time. Specifically, we discover a strong dichotomy among groups in terms of their lifecycle, and develop a separability model by taking into account a broad range of group-level features, showing that long-term and short-term groups are inherently distinct. We also found that the lifecycle of messaging groups is largely dependent on their social roles and functions in users' daily social experiences and specific purposes. Given the strong separability between the long-term and short-term groups, we further address the problem concerning the early prediction of successful communities. In addition to modeling the growth and evolution from group-level perspective, we investigate the individual-level attributes of group members and study the diffusion process by which groups gain new members. By considering members' historical engagement behavior as well as the local social network structure that they embedded in, we develop a membership cascade model and demonstrate the effectiveness by achieving AUC of 95.31% in predicting inviter, and an AUC of 98.66% in predicting invitee.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, to appear in proceedings of the 25th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2016

Impacts of WeChat on Millennials’ Perceptions and Consumption Behaviors in the Hotel Industry

Social media, known as interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications, has deeply changed and reformed interpersonal communication and business operation with the wide spread of Internet and the development of technology. In the past few years, since mobile apps are becoming more and more popular, the access of social media is not limited to tablet computers only, but is also available for almost all kinds of smart phone devices, such as iPhone, Android, Symbian and so on. The function of social media is not confined to real- time message transmission or information sharing any more. It has expanded to a widely range of features, such as online purchase and payment, e-commerce business, and service for different types of social events. Social media plays an increasingly important role in daily personal life as well as in business activities. People are not merely considered as social media users, but also the component of social media itself. As a result, it is very crucial for people to realize the importance and impacts of social media, especially for those business operators. WeChat (Weixin in Chinses, literally “micro message”) is a cross-platform instant text and voice messaging communication service for multiple mobile devices, developed by Tecent in China, first released in the January of 2011. It is claimed to provide “the new way to connect” and create “a way of life”. It is free to download, install and register, and support all kinds of smart phone platforms with multiple language versions, such as Chinese, English, Japanese, French, and Spanish. WeChat provides its users different ways to communicate and interact with friends innovatively through instant text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, group messaging, lively video sharing, location sharing, money transferring, and contact information sharing. Among all the WeChat users, Millennials is the majority. With the growing-up of Millennials, they are becoming more and more powerful and important to the society and will be the next target segmentation for most of the industries in the very near future. Especially for the hotel industry, the industry that urges to attract Millennials patrons for further substantial development, how to attract Millennials is becoming a critical issue for those hotel operators

Understanding the Effect of Tie Strength on Continuance Intention of Second-Generation Mobile Instant Messaging Services

Facilitated by the widespread adoption of smartphones, applications (apps) on smartphones such as WeChat and WhatsApp have seen rapid and explosive growth. These apps are generally referred to as second-generation mobile instant messaging (SMIM) services. Unlike first-generation mobile instant messaging (FMIM) services (e.g. Short Message Service), SMIM services typically support multimedia contents and are embedded within social networks, which may have a bearing on the post-adoption behaviour of users in particular. However, prior studies on the post-adoption usage of SMIM services have a limited understanding of the effects of social network. Network tie strength, as a configuration of social network, has an important impact on users in SMIM services. In order to explore the effects of social network on users’ continued usage intention in SMIM services, we propose and empirically test an integrated model by identifying the antecedents such as tie strength, satisfaction, and perceived critical mass. This study contributes to existing IS post-adoption literature by understanding and capturing the role of social network (i.e. tie strength) in SMIM services. Implications for theory and practice are discussed

Understanding the effect of smart retail brand - consumer communications via mobile instant messaging (MIM) - an empirical study in the Chinese context

Faced with competitive forces, retailers are innovating by adopting ‘smart’ technologies such as contactless, omni-channel, ubiquitous computing, social networking and mobile apps. This paper examines consumer behavior responses during the use of a mobile instant messaging (MIM) application channel adopted by a Chinese pure-play retailer. MIM is text-based, real-time, mobile computer-mediated communication technology accomplishing real-time interaction with other users regardless of location. WeChat, a full service MIM application, contains functional and social features including SMS, MMS, LBS, photo sharing, voice message, video calls and “Moments” sharing, which is its social propagating feature. There is a paucity of literature on the role of MIM in building relationships and especially, the relevance of emotion and WOM for consumers engaging in MIM human-computer interactions. The model tested was derived from prior research on trust and also Stimuli-Organism-Response (SOR) that depicts the effects of environmental/informational stimuli on consumers’ responses. Specific research objectives included investigating the prediction that environmental stimuli comprising socialness perception, media richness, and involvement induce a positive emotional state, which results in positive WOM. The study employed a quantitative approach using a questionnaire posted on a WeChat (MIM) channel. The sample comprised Chinese WeChat users, typically young consumers (n=486). SEM was used to analyze the data. Prior research has indicated that building relationships with consumers is more difficult when the relationships are consumer-computer as compared to consumer-person (face-to-face). The findings of this study suggest that such a negative effect can be alleviated by the use of MIM, which is associated with socialness perception, media richness, consumer involvement, emotional connections and positive WOM. To the authors’ knowledge, this study is original in integrating socialness perception, media richness and WOM into the SOR framework. The implications for practitioners are discussed, relating in particular to retailers’ need to be aware of the extent to which consumers are willing to engage with MIM applications

Understanding the effect of smart retail brand - consumer communications via mobile instant messaging (MIM) - an empirical study in the Chinese context

Faced with competitive forces, retailers are innovating by adopting ‘smart’ technologies such as contactless, omni-channel, ubiquitous computing, social networking and mobile apps. This paper examines consumer behavior responses during the use of a mobile instant messaging (MIM) application channel adopted by a Chinese pure-play retailer. MIM is text-based, real-time, mobile computer-mediated communication technology accomplishing real-time interaction with other users regardless of location. WeChat, a full service MIM application, contains functional and social features including SMS, MMS, LBS, photo sharing, voice message, video calls and “Moments” sharing, which is its social propagating feature. There is a paucity of literature on the role of MIM in building relationships and especially, the relevance of emotion and WOM for consumers engaging in MIM human-computer interactions. The model tested was derived from prior research on trust and also Stimuli-Organism-Response (SOR) that depicts the effects of environmental/informational stimuli on consumers’ responses. Specific research objectives included investigating the prediction that environmental stimuli comprising socialness perception, media richness, and involvement induce a positive emotional state, which results in positive WOM. The study employed a quantitative approach using a questionnaire posted on a WeChat (MIM) channel. The sample comprised Chinese WeChat users, typically young consumers (n=486). SEM was used to analyze the data. Prior research has indicated that building relationships with consumers is more difficult when the relationships are consumer-computer as compared to consumer-person (face-to-face). The findings of this study suggest that such a negative effect can be alleviated by the use of MIM, which is associated with socialness perception, media richness, consumer involvement, emotional connections and positive WOM. To the authors’ knowledge, this study is original in integrating socialness perception, media richness and WOM into the SOR framework. The implications for practitioners are discussed, relating in particular to retailers’ need to be aware of the extent to which consumers are willing to engage with MIM applications

Integrating guanxi into technology acceptance: an empirical investigation of WeChat

Social influence is an important research topic in the technology acceptance literature, in particular for social media. Prior empirical studies have for the most part employed social influence theory to investigate user intentions to continue with social media, while culture driven theories have been neglected. Rather than using social influence theory, we introduced guanxi theory to explore how guanxi social mechanisms (or processes) influence Chinese users’ continuance intentions in WeChat. Specifically, we developed a model that examines the role of guanxi as manifested by renqing, mianzi and ganqing in perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and continuance intention in WeChat. A survey research method was adopted to test the proposed hypotheses. This study found that ganqing has a positive impact on perceived usefulness and continuance intention. Mianzi exerts a negative effect on continuance intention but exhibits a positive effect on perceived usefulness. Renqing was found to have no significant impact on perceived usefulness and continuance intention. Our study advances the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by introducing guanxi-based constructs in a Chinese mobile social-messaging application context. Our study also offers alternative insights on guanxi-based social influence processes in the Chinese technology acceptance literature

UNDERSTANDING POST ADOPTION SWITCHING BEHAVIOR FOR MOBILE INSTANT MESSAGING APPLICATION IN CHINA: BASED ON MIGRATION THEORY

Post adoptive IT use is a hot research stream in information systems field, including continuance behaviours and switching behaviours. While there are a great number of studies on users’ intentions or behaviors for diversified information systems, previous post adoptive IT studies pay relatively less attention on users’ switching behaviors. Hence, we know little about this phenomenon and triggers on users’ switching behaviors. This research identifies the features of users IT switching behaviors and examines what trigger their switching intentions and actual behaviors in the context of mobile instant messaging (MIM) application in China. A model of MIM switching behaviors is developed based on Curran and Saguy’s (2001) research on how networks of obligation, trust and relative deprivation affect human’s migration decision and process. Besides these three triggers, we also introduce dissatisfaction and curiosity into our model according to prior IS studies on switching behaviors. A survey research method will be adopted to test this model. Overall, our study may theoretically contribute to further understand users’ IT switching behaviors and yield some practical implications for designers and managers in MIM providers and their products propaganda

Continuance Intention on Mobile Social Networking Service: Examine the Effects of Habit and Gratifications

By integrating the uses and gratifications theory and habit theory, this study develops a theoretical model to explore factors affecting continuance intention of mobile social networking service. 218 valid data were collected in China. The empirical results show that, cognitive need and affective need have significant impacts on continuance intention. In addition, habit is significantly determined by affective need, tension-release need and prior use, which further significantly influences continuance intention