scholarly journals Self-Controllable Mobile App Protection Scheme Based on Binary Code Splitting

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Sungtae Kim ◽  
Taeyong Park ◽  
Geochang Jeon ◽  
Jeong Hyun Yi
Keyword(s):  
Personal Information ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Protection Scheme ◽  
Tablet Pcs ◽  
Android Apps ◽  
Dynamic Analyses ◽  
Iot Devices ◽  
Parameter Dependency

Mobile apps are booming with the expansion of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet PCs, smartwatches, and IoT devices. As the capabilities of mobile apps and the types of personal information required to run apps have diversified, the need for increased security has grown. In particular, Android apps are vulnerable to repackaging attacks, so various code protection techniques such as obfuscation and packing have been applied. However, apps protected with these techniques can also be disabled with static and dynamic analyses. In recent years, instead of using such application level protection techniques, a number of approaches have been adopted to monitor the behavior of apps at the platform level. However, in these cases, not only incompatibility of system software due to platform modification, but also self-control functionality cannot be provided at the user level and is very inconvenient. Therefore, in this paper we propose an app protection scheme that can split a part of the app code, store it in a separate IoT device, and self-control the split code through the partial app. In the proposed scheme, the partial app is executed only when it matches the split code stored in the IoT device. It does not require complicated encryption techniques to protect the code like the existing schemes. It also provides solutions to the parameter dependency and register reallocation issues that must be considered when implementing the proposed code splitting scheme. Finally, we present and analyze the results of experimenting the proposed scheme on real devices.

scholarly journals Using Executable Specification and Regression Testing for Broadcast Mechanism of Visual Programming Language on Smartphones

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Zulfiqar Ali ◽  
Aiman M Ayyal Awwad ◽  
Wolfgang Slany
Keyword(s):  
Programming Language ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Visual Programming ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Regression Testing ◽  
End User ◽  
Android Apps ◽  
Executable Specifications ◽  
Visual Programming Language

<p class="0abstract">The rapid advancement of mobile computing technology and the rising usage of mobile apps made our daily life more productive. The mobile app should operate all the time bug-free in order to improve user satisfaction and offers great business value to the end user. At the same time, smartphones are full of special features that make testing of apps more challenging. Actually, the quality is a must for successful applications and it cannot be achieved without testing and verification. In this paper, we present the Behavior Driven Development (BDD) methodology and Cucumber framework to automate regression testing of Android apps. Particularly, the proposed methods use the visual programming language for smartphones (Catrobat) as a reference. The Catrobat program scripts communicate via a broadcast mechanism. The objective is to test the broadcast mechanism from different angles and track regression errors as well as specify and diagnose bugs with the help of executable specifications. The results show that the methods are able to effectively reveal deficiencies in the broadcast mechanism, and ensure that the app matches all expectations and needs of end users.</p>

scholarly journals Consciousness about Mobile App Permissions

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 11384-11386
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Android Apps ◽  
The People ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Lack Of Knowledge

This paper gives us the attentiveness on opening files from unknown sources as sometimes it may cause damage to our mobile phones. In almost all the mobile apps after downloading it will ask some of the permissions to allow clicking for the allow button only we can able to access anything in that application otherwise we are unable to use all the features of that application. Many popular android apps including Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, Twitter, Share it, Instagram and other party apps get user permission after the installation. By allowing these permissions they can recording with the phone audio and video at any time, they can see contacts and modifying the USB storage contents(files). Lack of knowledge and awareness about permissions to the people may cause significant negative consequences. This research evaluates effectiveness of a demo app with visual ques to increase permissions awareness and avoid negative consequences.

Users' affect and satisfaction in a privacy calculus context

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad S. Najjar ◽  
Laila Dahabiyeh ◽  
Raed Salah Algharabat
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Device ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Perceived Benefits ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceived Risks ◽  
Privacy Calculus ◽  
The Impact

PurposeMobile device users are frequently faced with a decision to allow access to their personal information that resides on their devices in order to install mobile applications (apps) and use their features. This paper examines the impact of satisfaction on the intention to allow access to personal information. The paper achieves this by acknowledging the affective and cognitive components of satisfaction derived from affect heuristic and privacy calculus theories, respectively.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data was collected from mobile device users who download and install mobile apps on their devices. Overall, 489 responses were collected and analyzed using LISREL 8.80.FindingsThe findings suggest that personal information disclosure decision is mainly a matter of being satisfied with the mobile app or not. We show that perceived benefits are more critical than perceived risks in determining satisfaction, and that perceived benefits influence intention to allow access to personal information indirectly through satisfaction.Originality/valueThis study offers a more nuanced analysis of the influence of satisfaction by examining the role of its two components: the cognitive (represented in perceived benefits and perceived risks) and the affective (represented in affect). We show that information disclosure decision is a complicated process that combines both rational and emotional elements.

Where did my 256 GB go? A Measurement Analysis of Storage Consumption on Smart Mobile Devices

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Ashish Bijlani ◽  
Umakishore Ramachandran ◽  
Roy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
User Study ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Android Apps ◽  
Measurement Analysis ◽  
Redundant Storage ◽  
Smart Mobile ◽  
Smart Mobile Devices

This work presents the first-ever detailed and large-scale measurement analysis of storage consumption behavior of applications (apps) on smart mobile devices. We start by carrying out a five-year longitudinal static analysis of millions of Android apps to study the increase in their sizes over time and identify various sources of app storage consumption. Our study reveals that mobile apps have evolved as large monolithic packages that are packed with features to monetize/engage users and optimized for performance at the cost of redundant storage consumption. We also carry out a mobile storage usage study with 140 Android participants. We built and deployed a lightweight context-aware storage tracing tool, called cosmos, on each participant's device. Leveraging the traces from our user study, we show that only a small fraction of apps/features are actively used and usage is correlated to user context. Our findings suggest a high degree of app feature bloat and unused functionality, which leads to inefficient use of storage. Furthermore, we found that apps are not constrained by storage quota limits, and developers freely abuse persistent storage by frequently caching data, creating debug logs, user analytics, and downloading advertisements as needed. Finally, drawing upon our findings, we discuss the need for efficient mobile storage management, and propose an elastic storage design to reclaim storage space when unused. We further identify research challenges and quantify expected storage savings from such a design. We believe our findings will be valuable to the storage research community as well as mobile app developers.

India Goes Digital..Smartphone is the New Shopping Destination

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 289
Author(s):  
Shankar Chaudhary
Keyword(s):  
Online Shopping ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Smart Phone ◽  
Mobile Commerce ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Smart Phones ◽  
The Internet ◽  
The World ◽  
Shopping Experience ◽  
User Friendly

Despite being in nascent stage m-commerce is gaining momentum in India. The explosive growth of smart-phone users has made India much loved business destination for whole world. Indian internet user is becoming the second largest in the world next to China surpassing US, which throws open plenty of e-commerce opportunities, not only for Indian players, offshore players as well. Mobile commerce is likely to overtake e-commerce in the next few years, spurred by the continued uptrend in online shopping and increasing use of mobile apps.The optimism comes from the fact that people accessing the Internet through their mobiles had jumped 33 per cent in 2014 to 173 million and is expected to grow 21 per cent year-on-year till 2019 to touch 457 million. e-Commerce brands are eyeing on the mobile app segment by developing user-friendly and secure mobile apps offering a risk-free and easy shopping experience to its users. Budget 4G smart phones coupled with affordable plans, can very well drive 4G growth in India.

Stuttering mHealth Applications: A Qualitative Rubric Assessment (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fazwa M. Fadzilah ◽  
Noreen Izza Arshad ◽  
Izuddin Zainal-Abidin ◽  
Hui Min Low ◽  
Ahmad Kamil Mahmood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Evidence ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Standard Form ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Evaluation Instrument ◽  
Collective Effort ◽  
Speech Therapists

BACKGROUND Mobile applications (apps) that offer a variety of techniques to improve stuttering have been flourishing in the digital marketplace. In evidence-based clinical practice, speech therapists will recommend audio-enriched mobile apps to individuals with stuttering problems based on empirical research evidence. Unfortunately, many stuttering mobile apps available in the market are developed without a substantial research base. Hence, speech therapists necessitate a guideline which they could use to assess the quality of a stuttering mobile app before recommending the app to stutterers. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to develop a rubric for assessing the quality of the stuttering mobile app in assisting speech therapists to make informed recommendations METHODS The rubric was initially developed based on a set of criteria reviewed from the literature. Online surveys and focused group discussion were then conducted for results verification. RESULTS The outcome of this study is a rubric designed with four categories and 18-evaluative dimensions tailored to analyze the quality of stuttering mobile apps. The stuttering mobile app assessment rubric presented in the serve multiple purposes, including an evaluation instrument, providing guidelines for developing stuttering mobile apps and for creating a standard form that can be shared with professionals to facilitate a collective effort. CONCLUSIONS This rubric also offers a guidance to steer drive the future development of stuttering mobile apps that are evidence-based, and theoretically grounded

scholarly journals A first look at Android applications in Google Play related to COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Samhi ◽  
Kevin Allix ◽  
Tegawendé F. Bissyandé ◽  
Jacques Klein
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Location Tracking ◽  
Response Effort ◽  
Sensitive Data ◽  
Android Apps ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Public Health Organizations ◽  
Android Applications ◽  
Google Play

AbstractDue to the convenience of access-on-demand to information and business solutions, mobile apps have become an important asset in the digital world. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, app developers have joined the response effort in various ways by releasing apps that target different user bases (e.g., all citizens or journalists), offer different services (e.g., location tracking or diagnostic-aid), provide generic or specialized information, etc. While many apps have raised some concerns by spreading misinformation or even malware, the literature does not yet provide a clear landscape of the different apps that were developed. In this study, we focus on the Android ecosystem and investigate Covid-related Android apps. In a best-effort scenario, we attempt to systematically identify all relevant apps and study their characteristics with the objective to provide a first taxonomy of Covid-related apps, broadening the relevance beyond the implementation of contact tracing. Overall, our study yields a number of empirical insights that contribute to enlarge the knowledge on Covid-related apps: (1) Developer communities contributed rapidly to the COVID-19, with dedicated apps released as early as January 2020; (2) Covid-related apps deliver digital tools to users (e.g., health diaries), serve to broadcast information to users (e.g., spread statistics), and collect data from users (e.g., for tracing); (3) Covid-related apps are less complex than standard apps; (4) they generally do not seem to leak sensitive data; (5) in the majority of cases, Covid-related apps are released by entities with past experience on the market, mostly official government entities or public health organizations.

Predicting Uptake of the COVID Coach App Among U.S. Military Veterans: A Funnel Analysis Using a Probability-Based Panel (Preprint)

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth K Jaworski ◽  
Katherine Taylor ◽  
Kelly M Ramsey ◽  
Adrienne J Heinz ◽  
Sarah Steinmetz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Military Veterans ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Managing Stress ◽  
Usage Data

BACKGROUND Although the pandemic has not led to a uniform increase of mental health concerns among older adults, there is evidence to suggest that some older veterans did experience an exacerbation of pre-existing mental health conditions, and that mental health difficulties were associated with a lack of social support and increasing numbers of pandemic-related stressors. Mobile mental health apps are scalable, may be a helpful resource for managing stress during the pandemic and beyond, and could potentially provide services that are not accessible due to the pandemic. However, overall comfort with mobile devices and factors influencing the uptake and usage of mobile apps during the pandemic among older veterans are not well known. COVID Coach is a free, evidence-informed mobile app designed for pandemic-related stress. Public usage data have been evaluated, but its uptake and usage among older veterans has not been explored. OBJECTIVE The purpose of the current study was to characterize smartphone ownership rates among U.S. veterans, identify veteran characteristics associated with downloading and use of COVID Coach, and characterize key content usage within the app. METHODS Data were analyzed from the 2019-2020 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study (NHRVS), which surveyed a nationally representative, prospective cohort of 3,078 U.S. military veterans before and one year into the pandemic. The NHRVS sample was drawn from KnowledgePanel®, a research panel of more than 50,000 households maintained by Ipsos, Inc. Median time to complete the survey was nearly 32 minutes. The research version of COVID Coach was offered to all veterans who completed the peri-pandemic follow-up assessment on a mobile device (n = 814; weighted 34.2% of total sample). App usage data from all respondents who downloaded the app (n = 34; weighted 3.3% of the mobile completers sample) were collected between November 14, 2020 and November 7, 2021. RESULTS We found that most U.S. veterans own smartphones and veterans with higher education, greater number of adverse childhood experiences, higher extraversion, and greater severity of pandemic-related PTSD symptoms were more likely to download COVID Coach. Although uptake and usage of COVID Coach was relatively low (3.3% of eligible participants, n = 34), 50% of the participants returned to the app for more than one day of use. The interactive tools for managing stress were used most frequently. CONCLUSIONS Although the coronavirus pandemic has increased the need for and creation of digital mental health tools, these resources may require tailoring for older veteran populations. Future research is needed to better understand how to optimize digital mental health tools, such as apps, to ensure uptake and usage among older adults, particularly those who have experienced traumas across the lifespan.

scholarly journals Towards a Scientific Definition of App Marketing – A Practice-Oriented Approach Using Scientific and Grey Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Atilla Wohllebe ◽  
Mario Hillmers
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Practical Point ◽  
Gray Literature ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Job Ads ◽  
Oriented Approach

The relevance of smartphones and mobile apps has increased significantly in recent years. Increasingly, companies are trying to use mobile apps for their business purposes. Accordingly, the role of app marketing has become more important. Nevertheless, there is no uniform understanding of the term "app marketing". Based on scientific and gray literature, two definitions of "app marketing" are developed. In the narrower sense, app marketing refers to measures aimed at making a mobile app better known and acquiring users i. e. generating app downloads. In the broader sense, app marketing refers to all activities that are used to acquire users for a mobile app, contact them, and encourage them to reach a specified goal. Additionally, based on job ads, an overview of activities in app marketing is provided from a practical point of view. Here, the focus is primarily on paid app install campaigns as well as on monitoring, reporting and analytics.

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