Mobile privacy and security can be a collaborative process where individuals seek advice and help from their trusted communities. To support such collective privacy and security management, we developed a mobile app for Community Oversight of Privacy and Security ("CO-oPS") that allows community members to review one another’s apps installed and permissions granted to provide feedback. We conducted a four-week-long field study with 22 communities (101 participants) of friends, families, or co-workers who installed the CO-oPS app on their phones. Measures of transparency, trust, and awareness of one another’s mobile privacy and security behaviors, along with individual and community participation in mobile privacy and security co-management, increased from pre- to post-study. Interview findings confirmed that the app features supported collective considerations of apps and permissions. However, participants expressed a range of concerns regarding having community members with different levels of technical expertise and knowledge regarding mobile privacy and security that can impact motivation to participate and perform oversight. Our study demonstrates the potential and challenges of community oversight mechanisms to support communities to co-manage mobile privacy and security.
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CO-oPS: A Mobile App for Community Oversight of Privacy and Security
The CO-oPS ("Community Oversight for Privacy and Security") app 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.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1814439
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10374189
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, (CSCW 2022)
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
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