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FAIR: Fuzzy Alarming Index Rule for Privacy Analysis in Smartphone Apps

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Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business (TrustBus 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNSC,volume 10442))

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Abstract

In this paper, we introduce an approach that aims at increasing individuals’ privacy awareness. We perform a privacy risk assessment of the smartphone applications (apps) installed on a user’s device. We implemented an app behaviour monitoring tool that collects information about access to sensitive resources by each installed app. We then calculate a privacy risk score using a fuzzy logic based approach that considers type, number and frequency of access on resources. The combination of these two concepts provides the user with information about the privacy invasiveness level of the monitored apps. Our approach enables users to make informed privacy decisions, i.e. restrict permissions or report an app based on resource access events. We evaluate our approach by analysing the behaviour of selected apps and calculating their associated privacy score. Initial results demonstrate the applicability of our approach, which allows the comparison of apps by reporting to the user the detected events and the resulting privacy risk score.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank: A. Paterno, D. Mattes, D. Wowniuk, M. Duchmann, M. Krapp, and R. Dieges for providing the app. This research work has received funding from the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie EU project “Privacy&Us” under the grant agreement No. 675730.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Mobile Business and Multilateral Security, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Majid Hatamian, Jetzabel Serna & Kai Rannenberg

  2. RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Wiesbaden, Germany

    Bodo Igler

Authors
  1. Majid Hatamian
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  2. Jetzabel Serna
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  3. Kai Rannenberg
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  4. Bodo Igler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Majid Hatamian .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain

    Javier Lopez

  2. Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden

    Simone Fischer-Hübner

  3. University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece

    Costas Lambrinoudakis

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Hatamian, M., Serna, J., Rannenberg, K., Igler, B. (2017). FAIR: Fuzzy Alarming Index Rule for Privacy Analysis in Smartphone Apps. In: Lopez, J., Fischer-Hübner, S., Lambrinoudakis, C. (eds) Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business. TrustBus 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10442. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64483-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64483-7_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64482-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64483-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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