Intent-Aware Permission Architecture: A Model for Rethinking Informed Consent for Android Apps
This addresses data privacy concerns for Android users by improving transparency and trust, though it is an incremental enhancement to existing permission models.
The paper tackles the problem of inadequate informed consent in Android app permissions by proposing an Intent-aware permission architecture that extends the current model with a precise mechanism for full disclosure of purpose and scope limitation, based on an ontology study of data requests.
As data privacy continues to be a crucial human-right concern as recognized by the UN, regulatory agencies have demanded developers obtain user permission before accessing user-sensitive data. Mainly through the use of privacy policies statements, developers fulfill their legal requirements to keep users abreast of the requests for their data. In addition, platforms such as Android enforces explicit permission request using the permission model. Nonetheless, recent research has shown that service providers hardly make full disclosure when requesting data in these statements. Neither is the current permission model designed to provide adequate informed consent. Often users have no clear understanding of the reason and scope of usage of the data request. This paper proposes an unambiguous, informed consent process that provides developers with a standardized method for declaring Intent. Our proposed Intent-aware permission architecture extends the current Android permission model with a precise mechanism for full disclosure of purpose and scope limitation. The design of which is based on an ontology study of data requests purposes. The overarching objective of this model is to ensure end-users are adequately informed before making decisions on their data. Additionally, this model has the potential to improve trust between end-users and developers.