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The simpler, the better? Presenting the COPING Android permission-granting interface for better privacy-related decisions
Faculty of Human Sciences, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany.
Karlstad University, Faculty of Health, Science and Technology (starting 2013), Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (from 2013). Tech Univ Darmstadt, Fac Comp Sci, Darmstadt, Germany. (PriSec)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2674-4043
College of Science and Engineering, School of Computing Science, Human-Centred Security and Privacy Lead, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7187-6531
2017 (English)In: Journal of Information Security and Applications, ISSN 2214-2134, E-ISSN 2214-2126, Vol. 34, no 1, p. 8-26Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

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 quality of 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 and comprehensiveness are maximised

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2017. Vol. 34, no 1, p. 8-26
Keywords [en]
Android permission-granting interface; Heuristics; Interface comprehensiveness; Privacy-related behaviour
National Category
Computer Sciences Human Computer Interaction Information Systems
Research subject
Computer Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-65596DOI: 10.1016/j.jisa.2016.10.003ISI: 000410536600003OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-65596DiVA, id: diva2:1174088
Available from: 2018-01-15 Created: 2018-01-15 Last updated: 2020-09-03Bibliographically approved

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Volkamer, Melanie

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