With all the smartphone apps that track users’ data, there is one in the making that helps protect the privacy of app users.
TISSA — short for Taming Information-Stealing Smartphone Applications — essentially helps users control personal information accessible to the apps that run on their Android smartphones.
The app was developed by researchers at at North Carolina State University. Google Inc., which runs Android, declined to comment on the research.
Currently, Android apps must tell users what information they’ll be requesting from the phone, and people can then decide whether or not to download the app at all. Apple requires apps to ask permission before they access certain types of information.
By using TISSA, users create a set of more specific permissions on top of the ones Android gives. “When a user does not trust a downloaded mobile app, they can specify what kind of personal data they are going to allow the app to access,” said Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State who is heading the four-member project team.