When WhatsApp changed its privacy policy : explaining WhatsApp discontinuation using an enablers-inhibitors' perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that enable and inhibit WhatsApp users' discontinuance intention (DI) following the change in WhatsApp's privacy policy. Design/methodology/approach Using the enabler-inhibitor model as a framework, a research model consisting of discontinuation enabler distrust (DT) and the DT's antecedents [(negative electronic word of mouth (NEWOM), negative offline word of mouth (NOWOM) and privacy invasion (PI)], discontinuation inhibitor inertia (INR) and INR's antecedents (affective commitment, switching cost and use habit) and moderator structural assurance was proposed and tested with data from 624 WhatsApp users using partial least square structure equational modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings The results show that DT created due to NEWOM and a sense of PI significantly impact DI. However, INR has no significant impact on DI. Structural assurance significantly moderates the relationship between DT and DI. Originality/value The paper collected data when many WhatsApp users switched to other platforms due to the change in WhatsApp's terms of service. The timing of data collection allowed for collecting the real impact of the sense of PI compared to other studies where the effect is hypothetically induced. Further, the authors acknowledge social media providers' efforts to address privacy criticism and regain users’ trust, an area that has received little attention in prior literature

Forensic Analysis of Tor Browser on Windows 10 and Android 10 Operating Systems

Smartphones and Internet have become prevalent in our society with various applications in businesses, education, healthcare, gaming, and research. One of the major issues with the Internet today is its lack of security since an eavesdropper can potentially intercept the communication. This has contributed towards an increased number of cyber-crime incidents, resulting in an increase in users’ consciousness about the security and privacy of their communication . One example is the shift towards using private browsers such as Tor. Tor is a well-recognized and widely used privacy browser based on The Onion Router network that provisions anonymity over the insecure Internet. This functionality of Tor has been a major hurdle in cybercrime investigations due to the complex nature of its anonymity. This paper investigates artifacts from the Tor privacy browser on the latest Windows 10 and Android 10 devices to determine potential areas where evidence can be found. We examine the registry, storage, and memory of Windows 10 devices and the memory, storage, logs, and Zram of Android 10 devices for three possible scenarios i.e. before, during, and after use of the Tor browser. Our results do not support the claims made by the Tor Project regarding user privacy and anonymity. We find that it is possible to retrieve significant details about a user’s browsing activities while the Tor browser is in use as well as after it is closed (on both operating systems). This paper also provides an investigative methodology for the acquisition and analysis of Tor browser artifacts from different areas of the targeted operating systems. Therefore, it can serve as a base to expand research in the forensic analysis of other privacy browsers and improve the efficiency of cybercrime investigations efficiency

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Towards Effective Third-Party Application Dialogs: Solutions for Improved Attention and Comprehension

Computer security dialogs communicate important information to users. One avenue where such dialogs are presented are third-party applications, which play an important role in enhancing a user's experience and are popular in online social networks and smartphones. The first category presented by these applications are the permission authorization dialogs that request access to user information. The second category are the terms and conditions dialogs that describe the applications' policies regarding user information. Research has demonstrated that users have a strong tendency to ignore security dialogs, resulting in uninformed decisions. Unlike physical warnings, whose design and use is regulated by law and based on years of research, computer security dialogs are often designed in an arbitrary manner. This research examines two human factors that cause users to ignore these dialogs. Habituation—a key factor behind users' inattention towards dialogs—is a form of learning in which an organism decreases or ceases to respond to a stimulus after repeated presentations. User mental models, the second factor, are an integral part of what drives their behavior. Based on their limited understanding, users form incorrect perceptions about how their information is accessed and used. This dissertation proposes solutions that address human factors in third-party application dialogs and conducts user experiments to evaluate them. It makes three contributions to improve third-party application dialogs regarding two information processing stages of the human in the loop framework: (1) attention switch and maintenance, and (2) comprehension. The first contribution proposes two new dialog designs to improve attention and resist habituation towards permission authorization dialogs presented by third-party applications on a popular online social network, Facebook. The first design investigates the use of animation. It uses a real-life analogy and leverages the end-user's personal information examples to communicate the potential information disclosure in the event of permission authorization. The second design uses eye-gaze data from the eye-tracker as a mechanism of ensuring that the user reads the requested permissions before authorizing access to sensitive information. The second contribution investigates advertisements as a potential environmental stimulus that can impede user attention towards the authorization dialog. A user experiment is conducted on the mockup of a popular gaming website to measure user attention in the presence and absence of advertisements comprising of four types of content, namely, food, shopping, politics, and sports. The third contribution focuses on improving comprehension of the terms and conditions dialog, specifically the dialog displayed by Touch ID-enabled iOS applications. First, the potential misconceptions regarding Touch ID-based authentication with third-party applications are investigated. Second, four dialog designs are proposed to improve comprehension of the Touch ID terms and conditions dialog, specifically the information related to discovered misconceptions of fingerprint data access, application account access by others, and the role of fingerprint in Touch ID-based sign-in

Privacy Policy Analysis of Banks and Mobile Money Services in the Middle East

Privacy compliance of the Middle East’s financial sector has been relatively unexplored. This paper evaluates the privacy compliance and readability of privacy statements for top banks and mobile money services in the Middle East. Our analysis shows that, overall, Middle Eastern banks have better privacy policy availability and language distribution, and are more privacy compliant compared to mobile money services. However, both the banks and mobile money services need to improve (1) compliance with the principles of children/adolescent’s data protection, accountability and enforcement, and data minimization/retention, and (2) privacy statement texts to be comprehensible for a reader with ~8 years of education or less