Improved Mobile Device Security through Privacy Risk Assessment and Visualization

We offer a vision for improving mobile device security through the assessment and subsequent visualization of information privacy risk. We note that many security measures from the traditional notebook, desktop, and server domains do not translate well to mobile devices. Moreover, users of mobile devices may often lack security expertise and awareness. Thus, other options must be considered with respect to securing smart phones, tablets, and the like. In particular, we propose a means to assess the information privacy risk for a given mobile device and alert the user when there appears to be significant risk. At its heart, our approach attempts to visualize the privacy disposition of a mobile device, thereby guiding the user to work in a more secure fashion.