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The simpler, the better? Presenting the COPING Android permission-granting interface for better privacy-related decisions

Gerber, Paul ; Renaud, Karen ; Volkamer, Melanie (2016)
The simpler, the better? Presenting the COPING Android permission-granting interface for better privacy-related decisions.
In: >Journal of Information Security and Applications, 34 (1)
doi: 10.1016/j.jisa.2016.10.003
Article, Bibliographie

Abstract

One of the great innovations of the modern world is the Smartphone app. The sheer multitude of available apps attests to their popularity and general ability to satisfy our wants and needs. The flip side of the functionality these apps offer is their potential for privacy invasion. Apps can, if granted permission, gather a vast amount of very personal and sensitive information. App developers might exploit the combination of human propensities and the design of the Android permission-granting interface to gain permission to access more information than they really need. This compromises personal privacy. The fact that the Android is the globally dominant phone means widespread privacy invasion is a real concern.We, and other researchers, have proposed alternatives to the Android permission-granting interface. The aim of these alternatives is to highlight privacy considerations more effectively during app installation: to ensure that privacy becomes part of the decision-making process. We report here on a study with 344 participants that compared the impact of a number of permission-granting interface proposals, including our own (called the COPING interface — COmprehensive PermIssioN Granting) and two Android interfaces. To conduct the comparison we carried out an online study with a mixed-model design. Our main finding is that the focus in these interfaces ought to be on improving the qualityof the provided information rather than merely simplifying the interface. The intuitive approach is to reduce and simplify information, but we discovered that this actually impairs the quality of the decision. Our recommendation is that further investigation is required in order to find the “sweet spot” where understandability andcomprehensiveness are maximised.

Item Type: Article
Erschienen: 2016
Creators: Gerber, Paul ; Renaud, Karen ; Volkamer, Melanie
Type of entry: Bibliographie
Title: The simpler, the better? Presenting the COPING Android permission-granting interface for better privacy-related decisions
Language: English
Date: December 2016
Journal or Publication Title: >Journal of Information Security and Applications
Volume of the journal: 34
Issue Number: 1
DOI: 10.1016/j.jisa.2016.10.003
Abstract:

One of the great innovations of the modern world is the Smartphone app. The sheer multitude of available apps attests to their popularity and general ability to satisfy our wants and needs. The flip side of the functionality these apps offer is their potential for privacy invasion. Apps can, if granted permission, gather a vast amount of very personal and sensitive information. App developers might exploit the combination of human propensities and the design of the Android permission-granting interface to gain permission to access more information than they really need. This compromises personal privacy. The fact that the Android is the globally dominant phone means widespread privacy invasion is a real concern.We, and other researchers, have proposed alternatives to the Android permission-granting interface. The aim of these alternatives is to highlight privacy considerations more effectively during app installation: to ensure that privacy becomes part of the decision-making process. We report here on a study with 344 participants that compared the impact of a number of permission-granting interface proposals, including our own (called the COPING interface — COmprehensive PermIssioN Granting) and two Android interfaces. To conduct the comparison we carried out an online study with a mixed-model design. Our main finding is that the focus in these interfaces ought to be on improving the qualityof the provided information rather than merely simplifying the interface. The intuitive approach is to reduce and simplify information, but we discovered that this actually impairs the quality of the decision. Our recommendation is that further investigation is required in order to find the “sweet spot” where understandability andcomprehensiveness are maximised.

Uncontrolled Keywords: Secure Data;Security, Usability and Society;Android permission-granting interface, Heuristics,Interface comprehensiveness,Privacy-related behaviour
Identification Number: TUD-CS-2016-14682
Divisions: LOEWE > LOEWE-Zentren > CASED – Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt
20 Department of Computer Science > SECUSO - Security, Usability and Society
Profile Areas > Cybersecurity (CYSEC)
LOEWE > LOEWE-Zentren
20 Department of Computer Science
Profile Areas
LOEWE
Date Deposited: 25 Nov 2016 13:51
Last Modified: 15 May 2018 10:33
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