Bad Diagnosis: Analyzing Consent and Data Collection Practices of Mobile Medical Apps
[Interakcja człowiek–komputer] Autorzy: Ethan Myers, Lorenzo De Carli, Shantanu Sharma i 3 więcej
Mobile health (mHealth) apps collect personally-identifiable information while handling uniquely sensitive medical data, ranging from mental health records to real-time glucose or heart rate monitoring -- yet they remain poorly understood at scale. We present the first comprehensive analysis of consent and data collection practices across 10,000+ mHealth apps on the Google Play Store, combining static analysis and privacy policy examination. We develop a rigorous operational definition to distinguish health apps from general wellness programs, and design a measurement framework to detect misuse of permissions and violations of consent. Our analyses reveal a troubling ecosystem: 69.15% of apps request at least one permission unrelated to their stated purpose, with over 52.9% apps requesting location data, and 50.5% and 34.9% apps requesting camera and microphone access, respectively -- d…
- Kategoria arxiv
- cs.HC
- Kategoria
- Interakcja człowiek–komputer