A framework for user-centric privacy management in smartphones regarding Bluetooth Low Energy beacons

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Bello-Ogunu, E. (2016). A framework for user-centric privacy management in smartphones regarding Bluetooth Low Energy beacons. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Businesses and organizations such as retail stores, airports, and hospitals have begun to leverage the recent advances in localization technology to provide quality location-based services to their customers. Beacons are one example of this technology, which use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals to broadcast a unique identifier that is detected by a compatible device to determine the location of nearby users. Beacons can be used to provide a tailored user experience with each encounter, yet can also constitute an invasion of privacy, due to their covertness and ability to track user behavior. This is coupled with their potential for targeted advertising, and a lack of available information regarding their usage, degree of threat, and control. Therefore, I hypothesize that user-driven privacy policy configuration is key to enabling effective and trustworthy privacy management during beacon encounters. To accomplish this goal, I first investigate users' awareness and perceptions of beacons. I identify the privacy concerns users have, the related information they are willing to share, and the challenges they experience regarding the context of beacon encounters. I then demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of a crowdsourcing-based approach to deriving context-based beacon categorization and privacy labels. Lastly, I develop a framework for beacon privacy management that provides a policy configuration platform. Through evaluation of a proof-of-concept, I test different configuration schemes to refine the framework and offer recommendations for future research.

Details
Author

Bello-Ogunu, Emmanuel

Title

A framework for user-centric privacy management in smartphones regarding Bluetooth Low Energy beacons

Physical Description

1 online resource (177 pages) : PDF

Date

2016

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Businesses and organizations such as retail stores, airports, and hospitals have begun to leverage the recent advances in localization technology to provide quality location-based services to their customers. Beacons are one example of this technology, which use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals to broadcast a unique identifier that is detected by a compatible device to determine the location of nearby users. Beacons can be used to provide a tailored user experience with each encounter, yet can also constitute an invasion of privacy, due to their covertness and ability to track user behavior. This is coupled with their potential for targeted advertising, and a lack of available information regarding their usage, degree of threat, and control. Therefore, I hypothesize that user-driven privacy policy configuration is key to enabling effective and trustworthy privacy management during beacon encounters. To accomplish this goal, I first investigate users' awareness and perceptions of beacons. I identify the privacy concerns users have, the related information they are willing to share, and the challenges they experience regarding the context of beacon encounters. I then demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of a crowdsourcing-based approach to deriving context-based beacon categorization and privacy labels. Lastly, I develop a framework for beacon privacy management that provides a policy configuration platform. Through evaluation of a proof-of-concept, I test different configuration schemes to refine the framework and offer recommendations for future research.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Computer science
Information technology

Degree

Ph.D.

Keywords

Beacons
Bluetooth Low Energy
Internet of Things
IOT
Localization
Privacy

Subject Area

Computer Science

Advisor(s)

Shehab, Mohamed

Committee Members

Lipford, Heather
Chu, Bill
Wang, Weichao
Davis, Boyd

Degree Note

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2016.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

BelloOgunu_uncc_0694D_11202

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:461