Abstract

The interface allows the user to search for an arbitrary application on the Play Store; the permissions list and the privacy policy are then automatically retrieved, whenever possible. The user has then the ability of selecting a specific permission, and a list of relevant sentences are extracted by the privacy policy and presented to them, along with an accurate description of the permission itself. Such an interface allows the user to quickly evaluate the privacy-related risks of an Android application, by highlighting the relevant sections of the privacy policy and by providing useful information about sensible permissions. We presented a novel approach to the analysis of privacy policies in the context of Android applications. The tool we implemented greatly eases the process of understanding the privacy implications of installing third party apps and it has already been proven able to highlight worrisome instances of applications. The tool is developed with expandability in mind, and further developments in the approach can easily be integrated in order to increase the reliability and effectiveness.