Insecure Network, Unknown Connection: Understanding Wi-Fi Privacy Assumptions of Mobile Device Users

Abstract

Smartphones and other mobile devices have proliferated in the past five years. The expectation of mobile device users to always be online has led to Wi-Fi networks being offered by a variety of providers. Using these networks introduces multiple security risks. In this work, we assess to what extent the privacy stance of mobile device users corresponds with their actual behavior by conducting a study with 108 participants. Our methodology consists of monitoring Wi-Fi networks that the participants' devices connect to and the connections made by apps on these devices, for a period of 30 days. Afterwards, participants are surveyed about their awareness and privacy sensitiveness. We show that while a higher expertise in computer networks corresponds to more awareness about the connections made by apps, neither this expertise nor the actual privacy stance of the participant translates to better security habits. Moreover, participants in general were unaware about a significant part of connections made by apps on their devices, a matter that is worsened by the fact that one third of Wi-Fi networks that participants connect to do not have any security enabled. Based on our results, we provide recommendations to network providers, developers and users on how to improve Wi-Fi security for mobile devices.

Effects of socioeconomic and digital inequalities on cybersecurity in a developing country

“…Approximately, a total of 40% of students ‘never’ disabled their global positioning system (GPS) or used anti-virus software. Since most of the users perceive security settings to be a one-time effort (Bonné et al 2017 ), therefore they fail to disable their GPS. On the other hand, a total of 75% made use of free Wi-Fi networks.…”

Consumer privacy in smartphones: a systematic literature review

“…The adoption of smartphones has witnessed unprecedented growth globally in the past decade. The growth in security and privacy infringements have impacted the smartphone adoption (Liu et al , 2016; Bonné et al , 2017; Ghosh and Singh, 2018; Albashrawi and Motiwalla, 2019; Banerjee, 2019). The right to privacy has been accepted globally as one of the fundamental rights of every individual.…”