Are my Apps Peeking? Comparing Nudging Mechanisms to Raise Awareness of Access to Mobile Front-facing Camera

Hassib, M., Abdelmoteleb, H. and Khamis, M. (2020) Are my Apps Peeking? Comparing Nudging Mechanisms to Raise Awareness of Access to Mobile Front-facing Camera. In: MUM2020: 19th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, Essen, Germany, 22-25 Nov 2020, (doi: 10.1145/3428361.3428384)

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Abstract

Mobile applications that are granted permission to access the device’s camera can access it at any time without necessarily showing the camera feed to the user or communicating that it is being used. This lack of transparency raises privacy concerns, which are exacerbated by the increased adoption of applications that leverage front-facing cameras. Through a focus group we identified three promising approaches for nudging the user that the camera is being accessed, namely: notification bar, frame, and camera preview. We experimented with accompanying each nudging method with vibrotactile and audio feedback. Results from a user study (N=15) show that while using frame nudges is the least annoying and interrupting, but was less understandable than the camera feed and notifications. On the other hand, participants found that indicating camera usage by showing its feed or by using notifications is easy to understand. We discuss how these nudges raise user awareness and the effects on app usage and perception.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Additional Information:This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (grant no. 316457582) and by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE award number 65040).
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Khamis, Dr Mohamed
Authors: Hassib, M., Abdelmoteleb, H., and Khamis, M.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
Publisher:ACM

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
30950165040RSE EnterpriseMohamed KhamisThe Royal Society of Edinburgh (ROYSOCED)65040Computing Science