On Understanding Permission Usage Contextuality of Android Apps

In the runtime permission model, the context in which a permission is requested/used the first time may change later without the user's knowledge. Prior research identifies user dissatisfaction on varying contexts of permission use in the install-time permission model. However, the contextual use of permissions by the apps that are developed/adapted for the runtime permission model has not been studied. Our goal is to understand how permissions are requested and used in different contexts in the runtime permission model, and compare them to identify potential abuse. We present ContextDroid, a static analysis tool to identify the contexts of permission request and use. Using this tool, we analyze 38,838 apps (from a set of 62,340 apps) from the Google Play Store. We devise a mechanism following the best practices and permission policy enforcement by Google to flag apps for using permissions in potentially unexpected contexts. We flag 30.20\% of the 38,838 apps for using permissions in multiple and dissimilar contexts. Comparison with VirusTotal shows that non-contextual use of permissions can be linked to unwanted/malicious behaviour: 34.72\% of the 11,728 flagged apps are also detected by VirusTotal (i.e., 64.70\% of the 6,295 VirusTotal detected apps in our dataset). We find that most apps don't show any rationale if the user previously denied a permission. Furthermore, 13\% (from the 22,567 apps with identified request contexts) apps show behaviour similar to the install-time permission model by requesting all dangerous permissions when the app is first launched. We hope this thesis will bring attention to non-contextual permission usage in the runtime model, and may spur research into finer-grained permission control

ConXsense - Automated Context Classification for Context-Aware Access Control

We present ConXsense, the first framework for context-aware access control on mobile devices based on context classification. Previous context-aware access control systems often require users to laboriously specify detailed policies or they rely on pre-defined policies not adequately reflecting the true preferences of users. We present the design and implementation of a context-aware framework that uses a probabilistic approach to overcome these deficiencies. The framework utilizes context sensing and machine learning to automatically classify contexts according to their security and privacy-related properties. We apply the framework to two important smartphone-related use cases: protection against device misuse using a dynamic device lock and protection against sensory malware. We ground our analysis on a sociological survey examining the perceptions and concerns of users related to contextual smartphone security and analyze the effectiveness of our approach with real-world context data. We also demonstrate the integration of our framework with the FlaskDroid architecture for fine-grained access control enforcement on the Android platform.Comment: Recipient of the Best Paper Awar

The Feasibility of Dynamically Granted Permissions: Aligning Mobile Privacy with User Preferences

Current smartphone operating systems regulate application permissions by prompting users on an ask-on-first-use basis. Prior research has shown that this method is ineffective because it fails to account for context: the circumstances under which an application first requests access to data may be vastly different than the circumstances under which it subsequently requests access. We performed a longitudinal 131-person field study to analyze the contextuality behind user privacy decisions to regulate access to sensitive resources. We built a classifier to make privacy decisions on the user's behalf by detecting when context has changed and, when necessary, inferring privacy preferences based on the user's past decisions and behavior. Our goal is to automatically grant appropriate resource requests without further user intervention, deny inappropriate requests, and only prompt the user when the system is uncertain of the user's preferences. We show that our approach can accurately predict users' privacy decisions 96.8% of the time, which is a four-fold reduction in error rate compared to current systems.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

Riley v. California and the Stickiness Principle

In Fourth Amendment decisions, different concepts, facts and assumptions about reality are often tethered together by vocabulary and fact, creating a ‘Stickiness Principle.’ In particular, form and function historically were considered indistinguishable, not as separate factors. For example, “containers” carried things, “watches” told time, and “phones” were used to make voice calls. Advancing technology, though, began to fracture this identity and the broader Stickiness Principle. In June 2014, Riley v. California and its companion case, United States v. Wurie, offered the Supreme Court an opportunity to begin untethering form and function and dismantling the Stickiness Principle. Riley presented the question of whether cell phone searches incident to a lawful arrest were constitutional. The Court, which had clung to pre-digital concepts such as physical trespass well into the twenty-first century, appeared ready to explore how technology is reshaping historically understood conceptions of privacy. From a broader perspective, the case offers an initial step in reconciling pre-digital rules based on outdated spatial conceptions of physical things with the changing realities of a technology driven world

Examining relational digital transformation through the unfolding of local practices of the Finnish taxi industry

Digital transformation has become a central construct in information systems (IS) research. Current conceptualizations largely attribute transformation to intentionality, focus on transformation within a single organization, or assign technology the role of a disruptive agent of change. Likewise, “digital” tends to be a general category of technology, rather than a specific technology enacted in a time and place. Inspired by Schatzkian practice theory and its site ontology, we suggest a contextual viewpoint on digital transformation and call it “relational digital transformation.” We analyzed the change dynamics in the context of taxi dispatch practice in Finland, studying the changing taxi dispatch platforms over years. We investigated five powerful industry actors: two incumbents, two entrants, and a federation of taxi entrepreneurs. We identified events of change in the material arrangements in sites and explain the changes through the process dynamics in the focal practice. We define relational digital transformation as a process through which practice-arrangement bundles of digital technologies evolve over time. This approach assumes the default nature of an industry is to be found in the changing relations between entities rather than in entities themselves. This provides a theoretical extension to the prevailing views of digital transformation in IS literature. It enables studying digital transformation in retrospect without attributing change agency to any entities or technologies a priori. We also contribute to practice-theoretical IS literature by demonstrating how the applicability of practice theoretical analysis extends beyond microphenomena to larger industry-level changes.©2020 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY–NC–ND 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Extending digital infrastructures : a typology of growth tactics

Digital infrastructures enable delivery of information services in functional areas such as health, payment, and transportation by providing a socio-technical foundation for partnership governance, resource reuse, and system integration. To effectively serve new purposes and emerging possibilities, however, a key question concerns how an infrastructure can be extended to cater for future services in its functional area? In this paper, we approach such digital infrastructure growth as a challenge related to the alignment of new partners whose capabilities spur innovative services that attract more users. We advance an initial typology that covers four growth tactics (i.e., adding services, inventing processes, opening identifiers, and providing interfaces) with potential to set extension of infrastructures in motion. We then explore the proposed typology by investigating the ways in which its particular tactics successfully extended the scope of a digital infrastructure for public transportation. Our insights invite IS scholars to engage more deeply in the development of growth tactics, which achieve infrastructure extensions that make service delivery durable

Extending Digital Infrastructures: A Typology of Growth Tactics

Digital infrastructures enable delivery of information services in functional areas such as health, payment, and transportation by providing a sociotechnical foundation for partnership governance, resource reuse, and system integration. To effectively serve emerging possibilities and changing purposes, however, a key question concerns how an infrastructure can be extended to cater for future services in its functional area. In this paper, we approach such digital infrastructure growth as a challenge of aligning new partners whose digital capabilities spur innovative services that attract more users. We advance an initial typology that covers four growth tactics (i.e., adding services, inventing processes, opening identifiers, and providing interfaces) with the potential to set extension of infrastructures in motion. We then explore the proposed typology by investigating the ways in which its particular tactics successfully extended the scope of a digital infrastructure for public transportation in Stockholm, Sweden. Our insights invite IS scholars to engage more deeply in the development of growth tactics that achieve infrastructure extensions necessary for improving the durability of service delivery

Privacy Perceptions and Behaviors of Google Personal Account Holders in Saudi Arabia

While privacy perceptions and behaviors have been investigated in Western societies, little is known about these issues in non-Western societies. To bridge this gap, we interviewed 30 Google personal account holders in Saudi Arabia about their privacy perceptions (awareness, attitudes, preferences, and concerns) regarding the activity data that Google saves about them, as well as any steps they take to control Google's collection or use of this data. Our study focuses on Google's Activity Controls, which enable users to control whether, and how, Google saves their Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History. Our results show that although most participants have some level of awareness about Google's data practices and the Activity Controls, many have only vague awareness, and the majority have not used the available controls. When participants viewed their saved activity data, many were surprised by what had been saved. While many participants find Google's use of their data to improve the services provided to them acceptable, the majority find the use of their data for ad purposes unacceptable. We observe that our Saudi participants exhibit similar trends and patterns in privacy awareness, attitudes, preferences, concerns, and behaviors to what has been found in studies in the US. However, our study is not a replication of any of the US studies, and further research is needed to directly compare US and Saudi participants. Our results emphasize the need for: (1) improved techniques to inform users about privacy settings during account sign-up, to remind users about their settings, and to raise awareness about privacy settings; (2) improved privacy setting interfaces to reduce the costs that deter many users from changing the settings; and (3) further research to explore privacy concerns in non-Western cultures

Enhancing Privacy through the Visual Design of Privacy Notices: Exploring the Interplay of Curiosity, Control and Affect

Privacy policies are the initial communicators of the services' data handling practices. Yet, their design seldom ensures users' privacy comprehension or provides people with choices around their information management, resulting in negative feelings associated with the sign-up process. In this paper, we investigate how to improve these conditions to enhance privacy comprehension and management, while inducing more positive feelings towards privacy notices. In an online experiment (N=620), we examine factors active during privacy interactions: curiosity, privacy concerns, trust, and time. We study how, together with framing and control incorporated in visual designs of notices, these factors influence privacy comprehension, intention to disclose, and affect (negative-positive valence). Our results show that, depending on an individual's level of curiosity, control can influence privacy comprehension, disclosure, and valence. We demonstrate the moderating ability of valence on privacy concerns, indirectly affecting disclosures. We elaborate on the results, highlighting how privacy notices designed to activate curiosity and provide control, could enhance usability and strengthen privacy-conscious behaviors. We argue that future work should study affect to further the knowledge of its role in cognitive processing resulting from privacy interactions