Visual Attention and Privacy Indicators in Android: Insights from Eye Tracking

Michele Guerra, Roberto Milanese, Roberto Milanese, Michele Deodato, Vittorio Perozzi, Fausto Fasano

2024

Abstract

In today’s digital landscape, where privacy preservation is of paramount importance, Android has implemented new features to enhance transparency: the Privacy Indicators (PIs). Our study employs eye-tracking technology to investigate how users perceive and interact with these indicators. As a visual alert system, PIs signal when sensitive resources, like camera or microphone, are in use. However, the structure of Android’s permission model, susceptible to exploitation by malevolent or commercial apps, places an excessive responsibility on PIs. They act as the final alert for users against the misuse of permissions in unexpected contexts. We conducted a controlled experiment with 29 participants who were exposed to various privacy scenarios while their eye movements were tracked and recorded. Our findings reveal a significant gap in PIs effectiveness, particularly in high-engagement tasks, indicating a need for more eye-catching privacy notifications. These findings suggest the need for redesigning some privacy interfaces to make them more effective. The study’s insights contribute to the broader discussion on balancing functionality with user privacy and the methodology of utilizing eye tracking in user experience research.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Guerra M., Milanese R., Deodato M., Perozzi V. and Fasano F. (2024). Visual Attention and Privacy Indicators in Android: Insights from Eye Tracking. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP; ISBN 978-989-758-683-5, SciTePress, pages 320-329. DOI: 10.5220/0012437600003648

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icissp24,
author={Michele Guerra and Roberto Milanese and Michele Deodato and Vittorio Perozzi and Fausto Fasano},
title={Visual Attention and Privacy Indicators in Android: Insights from Eye Tracking},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP},
year={2024},
pages={320-329},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0012437600003648},
isbn={978-989-758-683-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Information Systems Security and Privacy - Volume 1: ICISSP
TI - Visual Attention and Privacy Indicators in Android: Insights from Eye Tracking
SN - 978-989-758-683-5
AU - Guerra M.
AU - Milanese R.
AU - Deodato M.
AU - Perozzi V.
AU - Fasano F.
PY - 2024
SP - 320
EP - 329
DO - 10.5220/0012437600003648
PB - SciTePress