Stuck in the Permissions With You: Developer & User Perspectives on App Permissions & Their Privacy Ramifications

Mohammad Tahaei; Ruba Abu-Salma; Awais Rashid

doi:10.1145/3544548.3581060

Stuck in the Permissions With You: Developer & User Perspectives on App Permissions & Their Privacy Ramifications

Mohammad Tahaei^*
, Ruba Abu-Salma
, Awais Rashid

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

41 Citations (Scopus)

36 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

While the literature on permissions from the end-user perspective is rich, there is a lack of empirical research on why developers request permissions, their conceptualization of permissions, and how their perspectives compare with end-users’ perspectives. Our study aims to address these gaps using a mixed-methods approach.
Through interviews with 19 app developers and a survey of 309 Android and iOS end-users, we found that both groups shared similar concerns about unnecessary permissions breaking trust, damaging the app’s reputation, and potentially allowing access to sensitive data. We also found that developer participants sometimes requested multiple permissions due to confusion about the scope of certain permissions or third-party library requirements. Additionally, most end-user participants believed they were responsible for granting a permission request, and it was their choice to do so, a belief shared by many developer participants. Our findings have implications for improving the permission ecosystem for both developers and end-users.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI '23
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Number of pages	24
ISBN (Print)	9781450394215
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581060
Publication status	Published - 19 Apr 2023
Event	CHI '23: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Congress Center Hamburg (CCH), Congresspl. 1, 20355 Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany Duration: 23 Apr 2023 → 28 Apr 2023 https://chi2023.acm.org/

Publication series

Name	ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
ISSN (Print)	2159-6468
ISSN (Electronic)	2159-6468

Conference

Conference	CHI '23
Abbreviated title	CHI '23
Country/Territory	Germany
City	Hamburg
Period	23/04/23 → 28/04/23
Internet address	https://chi2023.acm.org/

Access to Document

10.1145/3544548.3581060Licence: Unspecified

Full-text PDF (final published version) Final published version, 2.19 MBLicence: CC BY

https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.06534Licence: CC BY-SA

Handle.net

Persistent link

REPHRAIN: REsearch centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial INfluence online
Rashid, A. (Principal Investigator), Ramokapane, M. (Researcher), Das Chowdhury, P. (Researcher), Owen, R. (Co-Investigator), Vranaki, A. A. I. (Co-Investigator), Rushforth, Y. (Manager), Schultz-Graham, R. R. (Administrator), Burger, K. (Co-Investigator), Peersman, C. (Co-Investigator), Zhang, M. (Co-Investigator), Van De Sandt, E. H. A. (Researcher), Hutton, H. (Researcher) & Gordon-Petrovskaya, E. (Researcher)
1/10/20 → 31/08/24
Project: Research, Parent

Cite this

Tahaei, M., Abu-Salma, R., & Rashid, A. (2023). Stuck in the Permissions With You: Developer & User Perspectives on App Permissions & Their Privacy Ramifications. In CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article 168 (ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581060

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title = "Stuck in the Permissions With You: Developer \& User Perspectives on App Permissions \& Their Privacy Ramifications",

abstract = "While the literature on permissions from the end-user perspective is rich, there is a lack of empirical research on why developers request permissions, their conceptualization of permissions, and how their perspectives compare with end-users{\textquoteright} perspectives. Our study aims to address these gaps using a mixed-methods approach. Through interviews with 19 app developers and a survey of 309 Android and iOS end-users, we found that both groups shared similar concerns about unnecessary permissions breaking trust, damaging the app{\textquoteright}s reputation, and potentially allowing access to sensitive data. We also found that developer participants sometimes requested multiple permissions due to confusion about the scope of certain permissions or third-party library requirements. Additionally, most end-user participants believed they were responsible for granting a permission request, and it was their choice to do so, a belief shared by many developer participants. Our findings have implications for improving the permission ecosystem for both developers and end-users.",

author = "Mohammad Tahaei and Ruba Abu-Salma and Awais Rashid",

year = "2023",

month = apr,

day = "19",

doi = "10.1145/3544548.3581060",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781450394215",

series = "ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

booktitle = "CHI '23",

address = "United States",

note = "CHI '23 : CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI '23 ; Conference date: 23-04-2023 Through 28-04-2023",

url = "https://chi2023.acm.org/",

}

Tahaei, M, Abu-Salma, R & Rashid, A 2023, Stuck in the Permissions With You: Developer & User Perspectives on App Permissions & Their Privacy Ramifications. in CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 168, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems , Association for Computing Machinery, CHI '23, Hamburg, Germany, 23/04/23. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581060

Stuck in the Permissions With You: Developer & User Perspectives on App Permissions & Their Privacy Ramifications. / Tahaei, Mohammad; Abu-Salma, Ruba; Rashid, Awais.
CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2023. 168 (ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

TY - GEN

T1 - Stuck in the Permissions With You

T2 - CHI '23

AU - Tahaei, Mohammad

AU - Abu-Salma, Ruba

AU - Rashid, Awais

PY - 2023/4/19

Y1 - 2023/4/19

N2 - While the literature on permissions from the end-user perspective is rich, there is a lack of empirical research on why developers request permissions, their conceptualization of permissions, and how their perspectives compare with end-users’ perspectives. Our study aims to address these gaps using a mixed-methods approach. Through interviews with 19 app developers and a survey of 309 Android and iOS end-users, we found that both groups shared similar concerns about unnecessary permissions breaking trust, damaging the app’s reputation, and potentially allowing access to sensitive data. We also found that developer participants sometimes requested multiple permissions due to confusion about the scope of certain permissions or third-party library requirements. Additionally, most end-user participants believed they were responsible for granting a permission request, and it was their choice to do so, a belief shared by many developer participants. Our findings have implications for improving the permission ecosystem for both developers and end-users.

AB - While the literature on permissions from the end-user perspective is rich, there is a lack of empirical research on why developers request permissions, their conceptualization of permissions, and how their perspectives compare with end-users’ perspectives. Our study aims to address these gaps using a mixed-methods approach. Through interviews with 19 app developers and a survey of 309 Android and iOS end-users, we found that both groups shared similar concerns about unnecessary permissions breaking trust, damaging the app’s reputation, and potentially allowing access to sensitive data. We also found that developer participants sometimes requested multiple permissions due to confusion about the scope of certain permissions or third-party library requirements. Additionally, most end-user participants believed they were responsible for granting a permission request, and it was their choice to do so, a belief shared by many developer participants. Our findings have implications for improving the permission ecosystem for both developers and end-users.

U2 - 10.1145/3544548.3581060

DO - 10.1145/3544548.3581060

M3 - Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

SN - 9781450394215

T3 - ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

BT - CHI '23

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

Y2 - 23 April 2023 through 28 April 2023

ER -

Tahaei M, Abu-Salma R, Rashid A. Stuck in the Permissions With You: Developer & User Perspectives on App Permissions & Their Privacy Ramifications. In CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery. 2023. 168. (ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ). doi: 10.1145/3544548.3581060

Stuck in the Permissions With You: Developer & User Perspectives on App Permissions & Their Privacy Ramifications

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

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Projects

REPHRAIN: REsearch centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial INfluence online

Cite this