scholarly journals What Is This Sensor and Does This App Need Access to It?

Informatics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Mehrnezhad ◽  
Ehsan Toreini

Mobile sensors have already proven to be helpful in different aspects of people’s everyday lives such as fitness, gaming, navigation, etc. However, illegitimate access to these sensors results in a malicious program running with an exploit path. While the users are benefiting from richer and more personalized apps, the growing number of sensors introduces new security and privacy risks to end users and makes the task of sensor management more complex. In this paper, first, we discuss the issues around the security and privacy of mobile sensors. We investigate the available sensors on mainstream mobile devices and study the permission policies that Android, iOS and mobile web browsers offer for them. Second, we reflect the results of two workshops that we organized on mobile sensor security. In these workshops, the participants were introduced to mobile sensors by working with sensor-enabled apps. We evaluated the risk levels perceived by the participants for these sensors after they understood the functionalities of these sensors. The results showed that knowing sensors by working with sensor-enabled apps would not immediately improve the users’ security inference of the actual risks of these sensors. However, other factors such as the prior general knowledge about these sensors and their risks had a strong impact on the users’ perception. We also taught the participants about the ways that they could audit their apps and their permissions. Our findings showed that when mobile users were provided with reasonable choices and intuitive teaching, they could easily self-direct themselves to improve their security and privacy. Finally, we provide recommendations for educators, app developers, and mobile users to contribute toward awareness and education on this topic.

Data & Policy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro A. de Alarcon ◽  
Alejandro Salevsky ◽  
Daniel Gheti-Kao ◽  
Willian Rosalen ◽  
Marby C. Duarte ◽  
...  

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge for humanity, in which a large number of resources are invested to develop effective vaccines and treatments. At the same time, governments try to manage the spread of the disease while alleviating the strong impact derived from the slowdown in economic activity. Governments were forced to impose strict lockdown measures to tackle the pandemic. This significantly changed people’s mobility and habits, subsequently impacting the economy. In this context, the availability of tools to effectively monitor and quantify mobility was key for public institutions to decide which policies to implement and for how long. Telefonica has promoted different initiatives to offer governments mobility insights throughout many of the countries where it operates in Europe and Latin America. Mobility indicators with high spatial granularity and frequency of updates were successfully deployed in different formats. However, Telefonica faced many challenges (not only technical) to put these tools into service in a short timing: from reducing latency in insights to ensuring the security and privacy of information. In this article, we provide details on how Telefonica engaged with governments and other stakeholders in different countries as a response to the pandemic. We also cover the challenges faced and the shared learnings from Telefonica’s experience in those countries.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hella Kaffel Ben Ayed ◽  
Asma Hamed

This paper presents an experimental study on mobile Web and mobile applications tracking. The study on Mobile Web tracking has been conducted on datasets collected by TrackScoreMobile, a Firefox add-on that has been developed and distributed to a set of Tunisian students and researchers. Results identify the factors that increase the privacy risk. The study on mobile applications tracking focuses on the permissions required by android applications. The findings point out on the mostly required permissions and the mostly tracked application categories. The originality of this work is summarized as follows: 1) identification and measurement of the parameters to quantify Web tracking, 2) identification of risky association between mobile applications permissions and associations between permissions and tracking components. The goal of this paper is to better understand how trackers rely on tracking components and on permissions for the purpose of tracking mobile users.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Smith ◽  
Francis Mendez ◽  
Garry L. White

A model is developed and tested to explain the relationships among narcissism, privacy concern, vigilance, and exposure to risk on Facebook, with age and gender as controlling variables. Two important constructs are conceptualized and measured in this research. Facebook exposure is defined as the opportunity for privacy and security breaches on Facebook. Facebook vigilance is the extent to which consumers stay focused, attentive, and alert to potential security and privacy risks on Facebook by restricting who can access and post to their Facebook accounts. Data from a survey of 286 adult Facebook users in the U.S. support the hypothesized relationships in the model. Results suggest that narcissism is related to increased Facebook exposure and lower Facebook vigilance, despite greater stated concern for privacy and security. Furthermore, females and younger users have greater risk exposure compared to males and older users. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.


2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anup K. Ghosh ◽  
Tara M. Swaminatha

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marci Meingast ◽  
Jennifer King ◽  
Deirdre K. Mulligan

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasser Taleb ◽  
Elfadil A. Mohamed

This study is a literature review on cloud computing cloud computing trends as one the fastest growing technologies in the computer industry and their benefits and opportunities for all types of organizations. In addition, it addresses the challenges and problems that contribute to increasing the number of customers willing to adopt and use the technology. A mixed research study approach was adopted for the study, that is, by collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative information within the same literature review and summarizing the findings of previous (related) studies. Results highlights the current and future trends of cloud computing and exposes readers to the challenges and problems associated with cloud computing. The reviewed literature showed that the technology is promising and is expected to grow in the future. Researchers have proposed many techniques to address the problems and challenges of cloud computing, such as security and privacy risks, through mobile cloud computing and cloud-computing governance.


2010 ◽  
pp. 1402-1421
Author(s):  
Robert Greenberg ◽  
Bernard Wong-On-Wing ◽  
Gladie Lui

The importance of consumer trust to the success of online businesses is well documented in the literature. Given the global nature of online transactions, an important question is whether trust and trust formation differ across cultures. This study compared Hong Kong and U.S. consumer trust in online businesses. Specifically, the study examined security and privacy risks related to the purchase of products as well as services. The results show that significant differences exist between consumers from the two countries regarding the perceived level of online business risks and the formation of trust via the transference process. These findings reiterate and underscore the significance of including national culture in studies of trust in e-commerce. The results also have potential implications for online businesses as well as third party certification and assurance services.


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