Mobile tethering: overview, perspectives and challengess

Info ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 40-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihai Constantinescu ◽  
Ertan Onur ◽  
Yunus Durmus ◽  
Shahrokh Nikou ◽  
Mark de Reuver ◽  
...  

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze mobile tethering from technological and social perspectives. Mobile tethering allows us to share cellular data connection with others over WiFi, Bluetooth or USB. Although the technology is ready and has promising outcomes, service providers and the users still keep their distance. Therefore, the incentives for the users and service providers should be identified. Design/methodology/approach – Technical challenges in terms of energy and bandwidth consumption are explored using an application specifically developed for mobile tethering. Usage issues are studied through conjoint analysis, in which we analyze the importance of technical aspects as well as social conditions for sharing data connection with others. Findings – The research shows that although energy, bandwidth and security are important technical challenges, users are mainly concerned about social aspects, such as with whom the connection will be shared, rather than monetary issues. Mobile tethering is a viable cooperative service, only when users are familiar with the person with whom the data connection is being shared. Research limitations/implications – In the technical evaluation of the mobile tethering application, only Android operating systems are being used. Other operating systems (e.g. iOS) may perform differently. Moreover, only a small fraction of smartphones and tablets has been tested. Practical implications – Service providers tend to block mobile tethering technology, as they do not have control and do not expect to gain revenues. However, service providers have the abilities to satisfy the security and privacy concerns of the users and can create secure femtocells for their customers. Social implications – Mobile tethering performance results indicate that more people can access the Internet while they are mobile even if they do not have cellular data subscription. More Internet-based services can be offered to people while they roam in other countries. Originality/value – For technology developers, both the key technical issues and the concerns of the consumers are highlighted. Future applications must contain reliable security and privacy protocols in their design. Moreover, the significance of the social networks is shown in the decision-making of the use of mobile tethering, especially with respect to the credit exchange.

2016 ◽  
Vol 117 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 289-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Massis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the Internet of Things (IOT) and its potential impact on libraries. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a literature review and a commentary on this topic that have been addressed by professionals, researchers and practitioners. Findings – In communicating the issues when comprehending the scope of the IOT, libraries need not succumb to the sometimes near-hysteria that surrounds the rhetoric regarding security and privacy. But, librarians must actively engage in the conversation and its subsequent actions to respond to patrons who use library networks and devices with calm, logical and transparent answers to those questions concerning what they are doing to ensure that security and privacy vulnerabilities are regularly addressed. Originality/value – The value in concentrating on this topic is to provide background and suggest several approaches to security and privacy concerns regarding the IOT.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheshadri Chatterjee ◽  
Ranjan Chaudhuri ◽  
Demetris Vrontis ◽  
Zahid Hussain

Purpose This study aims to empirically examine how consumer privacy concerns (CPC) impact smartphone usage for financial transactions. The study also investigates the moderating impact of regulations on this action. Design/methodology/approach With the inputs from literature and related privacy theories, a theoretical model was developed. The model was later empirically validated using the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique with 367 respondents from India. Findings The study finds that CPC significantly impacts on consumer behavior in using smartphones for financial transactions. The study also highlights that regulation has a moderating impact on consumer usage of smartphones for financial transactions. Research limitations/implications This study provides valuable inputs to smartphone service providers, practitioners, regulatory authorities and policymakers on appropriate and secure usage of smartphones by consumers, ensuring privacy protection while making financial transactions. Originality/value This study provides a unique model showing the antecedents of CPC to impact the behavioral reaction of smartphone users mediated through the ingredients of privacy calculus theory. Besides, this study analyzes the moderating effects of regulation on the use of smartphones for financial transactions. This is also a novel approach of this study.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo La Torre ◽  
Vida Lucia Botes ◽  
John Dumay ◽  
Elza Odendaal

Purpose Privacy concerns and data security are changing the risks for businesses and organisations. This indicates that the accountability of all governance participants changes. This paper aims to investigate the role of external auditors within data protection practices and how their role is evolving due to the current digital ecosystem. Design/methodology/approach By surveying the literature, the authors embrace a practice-oriented perspective to explain how data protection practices emerge, exist and occur and examine the auditors’ position within data protection. Findings Auditors need to align their tasks to the purpose of data protection practices. Accordingly, in accessing and using data, auditors are required to engage moral judgements and follow ethical principles that go beyond their legal responsibility. Simultaneously, their accountability extends to data protection ends for instilling confidence that security risks are properly managed. Due to the changing technological conditions under, which auditors operate, the traditional auditors’ task of hearing and verifying extend to new phenomena that create risks for businesses. Thus, within data protection practices, auditors have the accountability to keep interested parties informed about data security and privacy risks, continue to transmit signals to users and instill confidence in businesses. Research limitations/implications The normative level of the study is a research limitation, which calls for future empirical research on how Big Data and data protection is reshaping accounting and auditing practices. Practical implications This paper provides auditing standard setters and practitioners with insights into the redefinitions of auditing practices in the era of Big Data. Social implications Recent privacy concerns at Facebook have sent warning signals across the world about the risks posed by in Big Data systems in terms of privacy, to those charged with governance of organisations. Auditors need to understand these privacy issues to better serve their clients. Originality/value This paper contributes to triggering discussions and future research on data protection and privacy in accounting and auditing research, which is an emerging, yet unresearched topic.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 528-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Padyab ◽  
Anna Ståhlbröst

PurposeThe integration of internet of things (IoT) devices into daily life introduces challenges for the privacy of their users and those who are affected by these devices. This paper explores the factors that affect individual concerns regarding IoT use and how those factors affect the dynamics of privacy management with the presence of an IoT device.Design/methodology/approachFour focus groups of individuals and IoT experts were studied to understand the groups’ privacy concerns. The authors adopted a qualitative research method based on grounded theory to find relevant dimensions of situational privacy concerns in IoT use situations.FindingsThe results revealed that fourteen dimensions of individuals’ privacy concerns regarding the IoT are relevant and can be categorized under four key influential factors: collection, IoT device, collected data storage and use of collected data. The authors also analyzed the focus groups using genres of disclosure theory and explored how privacy concerns affect individual privacy management regulations.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to how future research can employ genres of disclosure as a theoretical framework to identify situations where privacy violations occur.Practical implicationsThis study can assist service providers and IoT manufacturers in deriving design principles and decreasing concerns by addressing the information that must be communicated to their users.Originality/valueAs opposed to the previous research, which was more inclined to dispositional privacy concerns, this study provides insights into situational privacy concerns when individuals are confronted with the IoT. This study represents the first attempt to investigate the process individuals experience in managing their privacy.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thanos Papaioannou ◽  
Aggeliki Tsohou ◽  
Maria Karyda

Purpose This paper aims to identify the data elements that social network sites (SNS) users consider important for shaping their digital identity and explore how users’ privacy concerns, self-esteem and the chosen SNS shape this process. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted an online survey with the participation of 759 individuals, to examine the influence of privacy concerns, self-esteem and the chosen SNS platform, on the shaping of the digital identity, through a classification of identity elements that users disclose when using a SNS, the Rosenberg self-esteem scale and relevant constructs from the literature. Findings Findings reveal that users consider the name, gender, picture, interests and job as most important elements for shaping their digital identity. They also demonstrate that privacy concerns do not seem to affect the amount of information users choose to publish when shaping their digital identity. Specific characteristics of SNS platforms are found to affect the way that users shape their digital identity and their privacy behavior. Finally, self-esteem was found to affect privacy concerns and digital identity formation. Research limitations/implications To avoid a lengthy questionnaire and the risk of low participation, the respondents answered the questions for one SNS of their choice instead of answering the full questionnaire for each SNS that they use. The survey included the most popular SNSs at the time of the survey in terms of popularity. Practical implications The results contribute to the theory by furthering our knowledge on the elements that shape digital identity and by providing evidence with regard to the role of privacy and self-esteem within social networking. In practice, they can be useful for SNS providers, as well as for entities that design security and privacy awareness campaigns. Originality/value This paper identifies novel factors that influence digital identity formation, including the specific SNS used with its particular characteristics in combination with privacy concerns and self-esteem of the user.


Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liudmila Ivanovna Khoruzhy ◽  
Roman Petrovich Bulyga ◽  
Olga Yuryevna Voronkova ◽  
Lidia Vladimirovna Vasyutkina ◽  
Natalya Ryafikovna Saenko ◽  
...  

PurposeNowadays, cloud platforms are used in many fields, including e-commerce, web applications, data storage, healthcare, gaming, mobile social networks, etc. However, security and privacy are still two significant concerns in this area. The target of this paper is to present a system for trust management in industrial cloud computing using the multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach. MCDM techniques have been developed to accommodate a wide range of applications. As a result, hundreds of approaches have been generated with even minor variations on current approaches spawning new study fields.Design/methodology/approachCloud computing provides a fully scalable, accessible and flexible computing platform for various applications. Due to the multiple applications that cloud computing has found in numerous life features, users and providers have considered providing security in cloud communications. Due to its distributive nature, dynamic space and lack of transparency in performing cloud computing, it faces many challenges in providing security. For security improvement, trust management can play a very influential role. This paper proposes a generic analytical methodology that uses a series of assessment criteria to evaluate current trust management testing prototypes in industrial cloud computing and related fields. The authors utilize a MCDM approach in the present article. Due to the multi-dimensionality of the sustainability objective and the complexities of socio-economic and biophysical processes, MCDM approaches have become progressively common in decision-making for sustainable energy.FindingsThe results of comparing and evaluating the performance of this model show its ability to manage trust and the ability to adapt to changes in the behavior of service providers quickly. Using a simulation, all results are confirmed. The results of simulations and evaluation of the present paper indicate that the proposed model provides a more accurate evaluation of the credibility of cloud service providers than other models.Practical implicationsThe number of cloud services and customers is vast and extremely competitive in cloud environments, where novel cloud services and customers can join at any time, while others can withdraw whenever they want. Because of cloud services' highly dynamic and dispersed design, trust management mechanisms must be highly flexible to obtain feedback and update trust outcomes as quickly as possible. The model presented in this article tries to improve users' trust in the cloud industry.Originality/valueUsing a method (MCDM) to find the best trust management solution based on user experience in industrial cloud computing is the novelty of this paper.


Author(s):  
Eunice Yeboah Afeti ◽  
Joshua Ofori Amanfo

Merchant adoption of mobile payments is facilitating new business models and changing the way merchants run their brick and mortar businesses. Despite the advantages of mobile payment adoption to the merchant, they still hesitate to adopt mobile payments. Thus, the study seeks to explore qualitatively through a case study the enablers and inhibitors to merchant adoption of mobile payments. The study identified that merchants are adopting mobile payments to facilitate new business models, to promote the disintermediation of traditional intermediaries, to offer different possibilities of growing their businesses, and to reduce transaction costs. Even though merchants believe that mobile payments adoption and use improve operational efficiency to their businesses, there are instances of fraud, particularly in the peer-to-peer transfer sector, data breaches, data security, and privacy concerns. Therefore, it is imperative for service providers of mobile payments to enhance technological issues regarding privacy protection that could enhance trust towards mobile payment adoption.


Mobile payment systems are rapidly surpassing traditional payment options due to their ease of use and efficiency. Their convenience, however, raises the question – how secure are these systems? There is a great deal of insecurity and risk for consumers as mobile payments involve a lot of financial information. Past research indicates that when involved in online activities and e-payments, consumers are specifically concerned about privacy and security. This study aims to understand influence of demographic variables on security and privacy concerns of consumers by conducting a survey of 1087 respondents in 4 major cities of the state of Gujarat, India. The results indicate that demographic variables age, occupation, annual income and city have significant relationship with security and privacy concerns of consumers towards mobile payments. The findings of this study can benefit mobile service providers, system developers and m-payment vendors to have an actionable segmentation of different target groups based on demographic variables. Practitioners can formulate relevant strategies to address security and privacy concerns which will ultimately facilitate adoption of mobile payment systems.


Author(s):  
Eunice Yeboah Afeti ◽  
Joshua Ofori Amanfo

Merchant adoption of mobile payments is facilitating new business models and changing the way merchants run their brick and mortar businesses. Despite the advantages of mobile payment adoption to the merchant, they still hesitate to adopt mobile payments. Thus, the study seeks to explore qualitatively through a case study the enablers and inhibitors to merchant adoption of mobile payments. The study identified that merchants are adopting mobile payments to facilitate new business models, to promote the disintermediation of traditional intermediaries, to offer different possibilities of growing their businesses, and to reduce transaction costs. Even though merchants believe that mobile payments adoption and use improve operational efficiency to their businesses, there are instances of fraud, particularly in the peer-to-peer transfer sector, data breaches, data security, and privacy concerns. Therefore, it is imperative for service providers of mobile payments to enhance technological issues regarding privacy protection that could enhance trust towards mobile payment adoption.


Author(s):  
Andrea Atzeni ◽  
John Lyle ◽  
Shamal Faily

The need for integrated cross-platform systems is growing. Such systems can enrich the user experience, but also lead to greater security and privacy concerns than the sum of their existing components. To provide practical insights and suggest viable solutions for the development, implementation, and deployment of complex cross-domain systems, in this chapter, the authors analyse and critically discuss the security-relevant decisions made developing the Webinos security framework. Webinos is an EU-funded FP7 project, which aims to become a universal Web application platform for enabling development and usage of cross domain applications. Presently, Webinos runs on a number of different devices (e.g. mobile, tables, PC, in-car systems, etc.) and different Operating Systems (e.g. various Linux distributions, different Windows and MacOSx versions, Android 4.x, iOS). Thus, Webinos is a representative example of cross-platform framework, and even if yet at beta level, is presently one of the most mature, as a prototype has been publicly available since February 2012. Distilling the lessons learned in the development of the Webinos public specification and prototype, the authors describe how potential threats and risks are identified and mitigated, and how techniques from user-centred design are used to inform the usability of security decisions made while developing the alpha and beta versions of the platform.


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