Research Article
CloudAnalyzer: Uncovering the Cloud Usage of Mobile Apps
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/eai.7-11-2017.2273742, author={Martin Henze and Jan Pennekamp and David Hellmanns and Erik M\'{y}hmer and Jan Henrik Ziegeldorf and Arthur Drichel and Klaus Wehrle}, title={CloudAnalyzer: Uncovering the Cloud Usage of Mobile Apps}, proceedings={14th EAI International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services}, publisher={ACM}, proceedings_a={MOBIQUITOUS}, year={2018}, month={4}, keywords={privacy smartphones cloud computing traffic analysis}, doi={10.4108/eai.7-11-2017.2273742} }- Martin Henze
Jan Pennekamp
David Hellmanns
Erik Mühmer
Jan Henrik Ziegeldorf
Arthur Drichel
Klaus Wehrle
Year: 2018
CloudAnalyzer: Uncovering the Cloud Usage of Mobile Apps
MOBIQUITOUS
ACM
DOI: 10.4108/eai.7-11-2017.2273742
Abstract
Developers of smartphone apps increasingly rely on cloud services for ready-made functionalities, e.g., to track app usage, to store data, or to integrate social networks. At the same time, mobile apps have access to various private information, ranging from users' contact lists to their precise locations. As a result, app deployment models and data flows have become too complex and entangled for users to understand. We present CloudAnalyzer, a transparency technology that reveals the cloud usage of smartphone apps and hence provides users with the means to reclaim informational self-determination. We apply CloudAnalyzer to study the cloud exposure of 29 volunteers over the course of 19 days. In addition, we analyze the cloud usage of the 5000 most accessed mobile websites as well as 500 popular apps from five different countries. Our results reveal an excessive exposure to cloud services: 90 % of apps use cloud services and 36 % of apps used by volunteers solely communicate with cloud services. Given the information provided by CloudAnalyzer, users can critically review the cloud usage of their apps.