CO-oPS: A Mobile App for Community Oversight of Privacy and Security
Mamtaj Akter, Leena Alghamdi, Dylan Gillespie, Nazmus Miazi, Jess Kropczynski, Heather Lipford, Pamela Wisniewski
TL;DR
CO-oPS addresses the challenge of mobile privacy management by embedding social oversight into a mobile app that lets trusted community members review installed apps and permissions and provide feedback. The approach combines Android frontend with Firebase and NodeJS backends, using AppScraper, DeviceTool, and PermissionTool APIs to collect and compare permission data and anonymized usage logs, while supporting group discussions via a community feed and messaging. The paper details the six-feature app design, system architecture, and discussed limitations and future work, including usability improvements and longitudinal field studies. Overall, the work demonstrates a practical path to scalable, community-based privacy governance for mobile device usage.
Abstract
Smartphone users install numerous mobile apps that require access to different information from their devices. Much of this information is very sensitive, and users often struggle to manage these accesses due to their lack of tech expertise and knowledge regarding mobile privacy. Thus, they often seek help from others to make decisions regarding their mobile privacy and security. We embedded these social processes in a mobile app titled "CO-oPS'' ("Community Oversight for Privacy and Security"). CO-oPS allows trusted community members to review one another's apps installed and permissions granted to those apps. Community members can provide feedback to one another regarding their privacy behaviors. Users are also allowed to hide some of their mobile apps that they do not like others to see, ensuring their personal privacy.