An approach for privacy policies negotiation in mobile health-Cloud environments

Abstract Mobile health (mHealth) customers shopping for applications (apps) should be aware of app privacy practices so they can make informed decisions about purchase and use. We sought to assess the availability, scope, and transparency of mHealth app privacy policies on iOS and Android. Over 35 000 mHealth apps are available for iOS and Android. Of the 600 most commonly used apps, only 183 (30.5%) had privacy policies. Average policy length was 1755 (SD 1301) words with a reading grade level of 16 (SD 2.9). Two thirds (66.1%) of privacy policies did not specifically address the app itself. Our findings show that currently mHealth developers often fail to provide app privacy policies. The privacy policies that are available do not make information privacy practices transparent to users, require college-level literacy, and are often not focused on the app itself. Further research is warranted to address why privacy policies are often absent, opaque, or irrelevant, and to find a remedy.

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Mapping of sensor nodes with servers in a mobile Health-Cloud environment

2013 IEEE 15th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services (Healthcom 2013) ◽

10.1109/healthcom.2013.6720724 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Snigdha Das ◽

Sudip Misra ◽

Manas Khatua ◽

Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues

Keyword(s):

Mobile Health ◽

Sensor Nodes ◽

Cloud Environment ◽

Health Cloud

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Are mobile health cloud apps better than native?

2015 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) ◽

10.1109/icc.2015.7248374 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Borja Martinez-Perez ◽

Isabel de la Torre-Diez ◽

Miguel Lopez-Coronado ◽

Joel J.P.C. Rodrigues

Keyword(s):

Mobile Health ◽

Health Cloud ◽

Better Than

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Assessment of the Fairness of Privacy Policies of Mobile Health Apps: Scale Development and Evaluation in Cancer Apps (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.17134 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jaime Benjumea ◽

Jorge Ropero ◽

Octavio Rivera-Romero ◽

Enrique Dorronzoro-Zubiete ◽

Alejandro Carrasco

Keyword(s):

Mobile Health ◽

Mobile Apps ◽

Privacy Policies ◽

Sensitive Data ◽

General Data Protection Regulation ◽

Android Apps ◽

Mobile Health Apps ◽

General Data ◽

Adjusted Scores ◽

Mhealth Apps

BACKGROUND Cancer patients are increasingly using mobile health (mHealth) apps to take control of their health. Many studies have explored their efficiency, content, usability, and adherence; however, these apps have created a new set of privacy challenges, as they store personal and sensitive data. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to refine and evaluate a scale based on the General Data Protection Regulation and assess the fairness of privacy policies of mHealth apps. METHODS Based on the experience gained from our previous work, we redefined some of the items and scores of our privacy scale. Using the new version of our scale, we conducted a case study in which we analyzed the privacy policies of cancer Android apps. A systematic search of cancer mobile apps was performed in the Spanish version of the Google Play website. RESULTS The redefinition of certain items reduced discrepancies between reviewers. Thus, use of the scale was made easier, not only for the reviewers but also for any other potential users of our scale. Assessment of the privacy policies revealed that 29% (9/31) of the apps included in the study did not have a privacy policy, 32% (10/31) had a score over 50 out of a maximum of 100 points, and 39% (12/31) scored fewer than 50 points. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we present a scale for the assessment of mHealth apps that is an improved version of our previous scale with adjusted scores. The results showed a lack of fairness in the mHealth app privacy policies that we examined, and the scale provides developers with a tool to evaluate their privacy policies.

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Ethical Ambiguities in the Privacy Policies of Mobile Health and Fitness Applications

Advances in Computer and Electrical Engineering - Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Network Architecture, Mobile Computing, and Data Analytics ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7598-6.ch063 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 877-888

Author(s):

Devjani Sen ◽

Rukhsana Ahmed

Keyword(s):

Mobile Health ◽

Mobile Applications ◽

Personal Information ◽

Personal Data ◽

Third Parties ◽

Privacy Policies ◽

Email Address ◽

Health And Fitness ◽

The Creation

Personal applications (apps) collect all sorts of personal information like name, email address, age, height, weight, and in some cases, detailed health information. When using such apps, many users trustfully log everything from diet to sleep patterns. Studies suggest that many applications do not have a privacy policy, or users do not have access to an app's permissions before s/he downloads it to the mobile device. This raises questions regarding the ethics around sharing personal data gathered from health and fitness apps to third parties. Despite the important role of informed consent in the creation of health and fitness mobile applications, the intersection of ethics and sharing of personal information is understudied and is an often-ignored topic during the creation of mobile applications. After reviewing the online privacy policies of four mobile health and fitness apps, this chapter concludes with a set of recommendations when designing privacy policies to share personal information collected from health and fitness apps.

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Ethical Ambiguities in the Privacy Policies of Mobile Health and Fitness Applications

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-2255-3.ch528 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 6083-6093

Author(s):

Devjani Sen ◽

Rukhsana Ahmed

Keyword(s):

Mobile Health ◽

Mobile Applications ◽

Personal Information ◽

Personal Data ◽

Third Parties ◽

Privacy Policies ◽

Email Address ◽

Health And Fitness ◽

The Creation

Personal Applications (apps) collect all sorts of personal information like name, email address, age, height, weight and in some cases detailed health information. When using such apps, many users trustfully log everything from diet to sleep patterns. Studies suggest that many applications do not have a privacy policy, or users do not have access to an app's permissions before s/he downloads it to the mobile device. This raises questions regarding the ethics around sharing personal data gathered from health and fitness apps to third parties. Despite the important role of informed consent in the creation of health and fitness mobile applications, the intersection of ethics and sharing of personal information is understudied and is an often-ignored topic during the creation of mobile applications. After reviewing the online privacy policies of four mobile health and fitness apps, this chapter concludes with a set of recommendations when designing privacy policies to share personal information collected from health and fitness apps.

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