Benchmarking privacy policies in the mobile application ecosystem

Abstract

Mobile app providers have access to, and gather, large amounts of personal data. The exact data varies by app provider and is described in lengthy privacy policies with varying levels of transparency. Privacy policies with a low level of transparency hamper users from making educated decisions about the data that they want to share with third parties. In this paper, the Privacy Policy Benchmark Model is presented based on existing literature and applied to a selection of 20 mobile applications and their privacy policies. The Privacy Policy Benchmark Model is used for evaluating the transparency and quantity of data that is collected. The model consists of two aspects: the amount of data mobile app provides collect and the transparency of those privacy policies. The examined providers are transparent about what they collected and how they use it. They are less transparent about other topics such as the location of the stored information and how information is processed after removal, making privacy and usage considerations more difficult for users on those specific matters.