Review of Mobile Apps Permissions and Associated Intrusive Privacy Threats

TL;DR

This paper reviews how mobile apps request permissions, the privacy threats involved, and assesses user awareness and the potential risks posed by app permissions to user privacy.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of app permissions, their associated privacy risks, and highlights gaps in user awareness and device security.

Findings

Many apps request extensive permissions.

Not all permissions are risky, but some create vulnerabilities.

Device settings can help mitigate privacy threats.

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.