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Smartphone Spying: Uncovering Hidden Dangers

Kwapich, Sally J

Abstract Details

2013, Master of Liberal Studies, University of Toledo, Liberal Studies.
The smartphone’s potent dependency, hyper-connectivity and distracting habits are changing the world at a rapid pace by tracking movement locations or extracting private contact data and ultimately impacting personal privacy. Attention-grabbing stimuli, surveillance ability, software applications (apps) and user practices associated with the smartphone have been presented as evidence of growing concern as causes for privacy erosion. Based on my review and analysis of the limited scholarly discussion available of this new but fast-developing technology, it is my opinion that apps are exploiting smartphone features to unknowingly rob users of their data by assembling travel patterns and viewing search behaviors. Three main theories shroud the causes of dependency and developing user habits which uncover certain reasons (simplicity and impetuses of the device’s functions and features) that legitimizes the enormous acceptance of smartphones even with the risk of privacy loss. The multifaceted smartphone coupled with the speed of change and acceptance has kept researchers and privacy advocates at bay. However, the discovery of hidden surveillance activities and signs of academia’s attention to smartphone security issues is promising. As the mobile industry makes modifications to enable user choice not-to-track or collect data, the scope of data loss would be minimized. In this thesis, I am proposing the smartphone surveillance model which encompasses habits, surveillance and choice evolution with a focus on privacy loss. The proposed surveillance model and following synthesis implies that by integrating the major posture of three theories, which collectively address manipulative software and smartphone user processing fluency, the need for explicit user choice is exposed.
Sumitra Srinivasan (Committee Chair)
Paul Fritz (Committee Member)
Richard Knecht (Committee Member)
69 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kwapich, S. J. (2013). Smartphone Spying: Uncovering Hidden Dangers [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1363858931

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kwapich, Sally. Smartphone Spying: Uncovering Hidden Dangers. 2013. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1363858931.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kwapich, Sally. "Smartphone Spying: Uncovering Hidden Dangers." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1363858931

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)