Review of Mobile Apps Permissions and Associated Intrusive Privacy Threats
Akosua Boakyewaa Teye1, Ezer Osei Yeboah-Boateng2
1Akosua Boakyewaa Teye, West End University College, Kasoa.
2Dr. Ezer Osei Yeboah-Boateng, Faculty of Computing & Information Systems (FoCIS), Ghana Technology University College, Accra Ghana.
Manuscript received on May 02, 2017. | Revised Manuscript received on April 04, 2017. | Manuscript published on May 25, 2017. | PP: 9-19 | Volume-4 Issue-10, May 2017. | Retrieval Number: J11750541017
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© The Authors. Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: The age of technology has created a huge market for smartphones and Apps usage and a new generation has been created based on knowledge sharing. Now knowledge has been made easily accessible by Apps but; are users even aware of the permissions that these Apps require and the privacy issues involved? The study was conducted on the basis of how users make use of Apps. It was conducted through the assessment of permissions required by various Apps through carefully selected third-party Apps and the devices’ settings and also a review of existing literature that has been conducted in fields within Apps and privacy. It will be unearthed that a many different but exhaustive lists of permission are sought by each App installed and the device it is installed on can quite give the user the information. Also not all permissions sought were found to be risky but some just created a path or a vulnerable point for other malicious programs to take advantage of.
Keywords: Apps, Privacy, Opt-in policies, Smart device, Profilers