  In this study, we examine the ways in which user attitudes towards privacy
and security relating to mobile devices and the data stored thereon may impact
the strength of unlock authentication, focusing on Android's graphical unlock
patterns. We conducted an online study with Amazon Mechanical Turk ($N=750$)
using self-reported unlock authentication choices, as well as Likert scale
agreement/disagreement responses to a set of seven privacy/security prompts. We
then analyzed the responses in multiple dimensions, including a straight
average of the Likert responses as well as using Principle Component Analysis
to expose latent factors. We found that responses to two of the seven questions
proved relevant and significant. These two questions considered attitudes
towards general concern for data stored on mobile devices, and attitudes
towards concerns for unauthorized access by known actors. Unfortunately, larger
conclusions cannot be drawn on the efficacy of the broader set of questions for
exposing connections between unlock authentication strength (Pearson Rank
$r=-0.08$, $p<0.1$). However, both of our factor solutions exposed differences
in responses for demographics groups, including age, gender, and residence
type. The findings of this study suggests that there is likely a link between
perceptions of privacy/security on mobile devices and the perceived threats
therein, but more research is needed, particularly on developing better survey
and measurement techniques of privacy/security attitudes that relate to mobile
devices specifically.
