Smartphones Put Your Privacy At Risk

Vocabulary flashcards defining key terminology, hardware components, and software security concepts related to smartphone sensor privacy risks.

Versatile

Having many uses or applications.

Suite of Sensors

A set of devices that collect physical and chemical information with uniform design that can share information.

Accelerometer

A device or tool within a smartphone that measures acceleration.

Gyroscope

A rotation-sensing device that can measure the 3-dimensional position of something.

Barometer

A smartphone sensor that measures atmospheric pressure, producing readings that subtly shift with increased altitude and can reveal what floor of a building a user is on.

Permission-Protected

Requiring a phone's user to explicitly grant permission before a newly installed app can access specific sensors or features.

Algorithm

A group of rules for solving a problem in a series of steps.

Machine Learning

A way in which computers learn from examples or experience.

TouchLogger

An app created by researchers that collects sensor data on a phone's orientation in space to infer keystrokes on a smartphone's number keyboard.

PIN

A sequence of numbers used to access a bank account.

Malicious

Intending to do harm.

Masquerade

To pretend to be something different.

Sonar

A system that detects an object by emitting sound pulses and measuring how long it takes for the echoes to return.

Peddle

To sell.

Siphon

To take and use something for your own purposes.

6thSense

A smartphone security system that monitors sensor activity against learned normal user behaviors and alerts the user when unusual activity is detected.

Reap

To gather something.

Prototype

A preliminary model.

DEEProtect

A system devised to give users active control by intercepting raw sensor data and stripping or distorting it down to only the features needed for user-approved inferences.

Blunt

To make less sharp or accurate.

AWare

A security system that requests permission before an app can access a sensor at the time of user input and remembers the phone state to prevent unintended authorizations.

Mitigate

To make less severe or serious.

Nefarious

Wicked or criminal.

Data Signature

A unique pattern of motion readings (such as accelerometer data) that distinguishes a specific travel route or movement from other activities.