ABSTRACT

Installing security applications is a common way to protect against malicious apps, phishing emails, and other threats in mobile operating systems. While these applications can provide essential security protections, they also tend to access large amounts of people's sensitive information. Therefore, individuals need to evaluate the trade-off between the security features and the privacy invasion when deciding on which protection mechanisms to use. In this paper, we examine factors affecting the willingness to install mobile security applications by taking into account the invasion levels and security features of cyber-security applications. To this end, we propose a visual language that depicts the coverage of different security features as well as privacy intrusiveness levels. Our user study (n=300) shows that users assessing security applications find their trade-off balance in highly secure apps with a medium level of privacy invasion. The results indicate that a low privacy invasion might signal that the security application provides less security. We discuss these findings in the context of understanding the trade-off between privacy and security.

摘要

安装安全应用程序是防止移动操作系统中的恶意应用程序、网络钓鱼电子邮件和其他威胁的常用方法。虽然这些应用程序可以提供必要的安全保护，但它们也倾向于访问大量的人的敏感信息。因此，个人在决定使用哪种保护机制时需要评估安全特性和隐私侵犯之间的权衡。在本文中，我们通过考虑网络安全应用程序的入侵级别和安全特性来研究影响安装移动安全应用程序意愿的因素。为此，我们提出了一种描述不同安全功能的覆盖范围以及隐私侵入级别的视觉语言。我们的用户研究 ( n=300) 表明评估安全应用程序的用户在具有中等隐私侵犯水平的高度安全应用程序中找到了他们的权衡平衡。结果表明，低隐私侵犯可能表明安全应用程序提供的安全性较低。我们在理解隐私和安全之间的权衡的背景下讨论这些发现。