Abstract:

Smartphones leak personal information about their owner when they use it to connect to the Internet. Despite recent coverage of these issues in popular media, raising aware- ness remains problematic since it remains largely invisible to the users. We designed a system, SASQUATCH, con- sisting of a network scanner and a public display, to draw the visitor's attention and inform them about these issues. SASQUATCH first gathers private information about pre- vious whereabouts, and then shows an anonymized version of this data on the public display to draw the visitor's at- tention. Next, SASQUATCH offers an interactive compo- nent that allows people to view the information their own smartphone is leaking in private, and then provides solu- tions (including a fully-automated smartphone application) for securing against future privacy leaks. A set of initial field trails has shown that SASQUATCH is highly effective in raising awareness.