Identifying Privacy Policy in Service Terms Using Natural Language Processing

Ever since technology (tech) companies realized that people\u27s usage data from their activities on mobile applications to the internet could be sold to advertisers for a profit, it began the Big Data era where tech companies collect as much data as possible from users. One of the benefits of this new era is the creation of new types of jobs such as data scientists, Big Data engineers, etc. However, this new era has also raised one of the hottest topics, which is data privacy. A myriad number of complaints have been raised on data privacy, such as how much access most mobile applications require to function correctly, from having access to a user\u27s contact list to media files. Furthermore, the level of tracking has reached new heights, from tracking mobile phone location, activities on search engines, to phone battery life percentage. However much data is collected, it is within the tech companies\u27 right to collect the data because they provide a privacy policy that informs the user on the type of data they collect, how they use that data, and how they share that data. In addition, we find that all privacy policies used in this research state that by using their mobile application, the user agrees to their terms and conditions. Most alarmingly, research done on privacy policies has found that only 9% of mobile app users read legal terms and conditions [2] because they are too long, which is a worryingly low number. Therefore, in this thesis, we present two summarization programs that take in privacy policy text as input and produce a shorter summarized version of the privacy policy. The results from the two summarization programs show that both implementations achieve an average of at least 50%, 90%, and 85% on the same sentence, clear sentence, and summary score grading metrics, respectively

QR code awareness in Stockholm, Sweden

This tech report describes the findings of a street survey on awareness of QR codes (2D barcodes) of the general public in Stockholm, Sweden. 108 passers-by were surveyed. Of these participants, a large majority (77%) did not recognize a QR code, and 8% reported seeing such a code before, but did not know it could be scanned using a mobile phone app. Only 15% knew what the shown QR code was, and that it could be read using a QR code reader on a mobile phone. The awareness of QR codes by the general public could be considered rather low, and their utility in Swedish public settings is currently debatable

An empirical study of power consumption of Web-based communications in mobile phones

Currently, mobile devices are the most popular pervasive computing device, and they are becoming the primer way for Web access. Energy is a critical resource in such pervasive computing devices, being network communication one of the primary energy consuming operations in mobile apps. Indeed, web-based communication is the most used, but also energy demanding. So, mobile web developers should be aware of how much energy consumes the different web-based communication alternatives. The goal of this paper is to measure and compare the energy consumption of three asynchronous Web-based methods in mobile devices. Our experiments consider three different Web applications models that allow a web server to push data to a browser: Polling, Long Polling and WebSockets. The obtained results are analyzed to get more accurate understanding of the impact in energy consumption of a mobile browser for each of these three methods. The utility of these experiments is to show developers what are the factors that influence the energy consumption when different web-based asynchronous communication is used. With this information mobile web developers could reduce the power consumption of web applications on mobile devices, by selecting the most appropriate method for asynchronous server communication.MUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Moblie Concrete Research Lab, 2004

A new, state-of-the-art mobile lab has recently been launched from the PCC Center at Iowa State University to bring high-tech concrete materials and concrete pavement testing capabilities to the field. The Mobile Concrete Research Lab has been custom built and fully outfitted with equipment capable of performing a comprehensive suite of tests

Mobile phone use among university students from Isfahan (Iran) and Malaga (Spain). Comparative study in the social and academic field.

The work presents a comparative analysis of mobile phone use by university students from two universities, a group from Isfahan (Iran) and another from Málaga (Spain). To do this, two groups of young people (90 students from the Faculty of Education of Isfahan and 108 students from the University of Málaga) responded to an online survey translated to Farsi, which analyzed several of the items. The data indicate that the presence and use of the mobile is very widespread among the young population. Nine students out of ten keep the mobile on forever. Although differences are observed in the use of applications, times, etc., and in the case of the sudents of Isfahan it seems to be used more frequently in almost all sections (social networks, informal chat, photographs, etc.) than its Equals of Spain. The results confirm the strong implantation of the mobile phone in the social life of young people but not so much as an academic or professional resource of the same.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Defining Mobile Tech Posture: Prevalence and Position Among Millennials

Background: Mobile technologies have revolutionized daily life, significantly impacting ADLs and IADLs, as well as use of the hand and upper extremity. The primary objectives of this study are to (a) provide a formal goniometric description of mobile tech posture and (b) examine the prevalence of this sub-optimal posture among a group of graduate students. Method: This study used a cross-sectional study design. Comprehensive goniometric measurements of the neck and upper extremity were taken with participants (N = 46) using their mobile devices while texting or using the Internet. Handheld usage data from the iPhone Screen Time feature (iOS 12) was collected from a sample of healthy young adults. Results: The participants spent an average of 143 min per day using mobile technology. Comprehensive goniometric measurements highlighted positions of clinical concern, including cervical spine flexion, scapular protraction, elbow flexion, and wrist ulnar deviation with thumb flexion. Discussion: Findings aligned with prior research suggesting several hr per day of handheld mobile technology use among young adults. Mobile tech posture, as described by goniometric trends, includes several positions of concern for musculoskeletal imbalance or cumulative trauma disorders (e.g., cubital tunnel syndrome; De Quervain’s tenosynovitis). Further research is recommended to examine broader societal trends and impact on occupational performance

Why Capital does not Migrate to the South: A New Economic Geography Perspective

This paper explains why capital does not flow from the North to the South - the Lucas Paradox - with a New Economic Geography model that incorporates mobile capital, immobile labour, and productively heterogeneous firms. In contrast to neoclassical theories, the results show that even a small difference in the ex-ante productivity distribution between North and South can a have significant impact on the location of firms. Despite differences in aggregate capital to labour ratios, wage and rental rates continue to be the same in both locations. The paper also analyses the effects of risk on industrial locations, and shows why 'low-tech' industries tend to migrate to the South, while 'high-tech' industries continue to locate in the North.Firm heterogeneity, capital mobility, economic geography

Gas Source Localization Strategies for Teleoperated Mobile Robots. An Experimental Analysis

Gas source localization (GSL) is one of the most important and direct applications of a gas sensitive mobile robot, and consists in searching for one or multiple volatile emission sources with a mobile robot that has improved sensing capabilities (i.e. olfaction, wind flow, etc.). This work adresses GSL by employing a teleoperated mobile robot, and focuses on which search strategy is the most suitable for this teleoperated approach. Four different search strategies, namely chemotaxis, anemotaxis, gas-mapping, and visual-aided search, are analyzed and evaluated according to a set of proposed indicators (e.g. accuracy, efficiency, success rate, etc.) to determine the most suitable one for a human-teleoperated mobile robot. Experimental validation is carried out employing a large dataset composed of over 150 trials where volunteer operators had to locate a gas-leak in a virtual environment under various and realistic environmental conditions (i.e. different wind flow patterns and gas source locations). We report different findings, from which we highlight that, against intuition, visual-aided search is not always the best strategy, but depends on the environmental conditions and the operator’s ability to understand how gas distributes.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The Demographics of Mobile News Habits Men, College Grads and the Young are more Engaged

In the growing realm of mobile news, men and the more highly educated emerge as more engaged news consumers, according to this new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, in collaboration with The Economist Group. These findings parallel, for the most part, demographic patterns of general news consumption. But there are some important areas of difference between mobile and general news habits -- particularly among young people. While they are much lighter news consumers generally and have largely abandoned the print news product, young people get news on mobile devices to similar degrees as older users. And, when getting news through apps, young people say they prefer a print-like experience over one with high-tech or multi-media features.These are key findings of an analysis of mobile news habits across a variety of demographic groups. This report builds off an earlier PEJ and The Economist Group report, The Future of Mobile News, which found that half of U.S. adults now own mobile devices and a majority use them for news. Both reports are based on a survey of 9,513 U.S. adults conducted from June-August 2012 (including 4,638 mobile device owners). Men, especially young men, are heavier mobile news consumers than women. More than 40% of men get news daily on either their smartphone and/or tablet, compared with roughly 30% of women. On the tablet specifically, men check in for news more frequently and are more apt to read in-depth news articles and to watch news videos. Women, on the other hand, are more likely than men to use social networks as a way to get news

Enhancing smart environments with mobile robots

Sensor networks are becoming popular nowadays in the development of smart environments. Heavily relying on static sensor and actuators, though, such environments usually lacks of versatility regarding the provided services and interaction capabilities. Here we present a framework for smart environments where a service robot is included within the sensor network acting as a mobile sensor and/or actuator. Our framework integrates on-the-shelf technologies to ensure its adaptability to a variety of sensor technologies and robotic software. Two pilot cases are presented as evaluation of our proposal.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech