Native App Privacy

Full Title and Meme

An application that is installed on a user's computing device can be given access to some parts of user Privacy.

Context

• The first of the Laws of Security tell us that when an attacker gets to run their code on your computer, it is not longer just your computer any longer.
• There are two parts to Privacy (the right to be let alone) that are should be subject to User Consent on a portable computer device, like a Smart Phone:
  • User Private Information that we would like to be able to share only with permission. This is the Information Sharing that is regulated by the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018.
  • Attention, or just how annoying do we want a device in our immediate possession to be? (The regulation of user notifications is less clear.)
• Android App list of Data Categories that require User Consent. https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/6270602?hl=en
• Apple iPhone App Requesting Permission: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/app-architecture/requesting-permission/
• Apple iPhone app Requesting Authorization to use System Features: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/core_app/protecting_the_user_s_privacy
• Apple CKContainer manages all attempts to access user data on the device or in iCloud. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/cloudkit/ckcontainer
• Windows (UWP) settings are on all Windows 10 computers, but do not seem to be shown anywhere on their documentation. Just navigate start -> settings -> privacy -> app settings.

Problems

• Each company that creates a set of privacy settings does so independently without any coordination or common language.
• Each company puts a majority of their settings under the settings tab, but then there are other setting that occur in other locations.
• Each company also supplies an "Identity Server" that provide, Apple ID, Google ID and Microsoft ID that have a rich history of providing other services, especially email.
• Each of those ID offerings are slightly different and are responsible for the Data Sharing part of privacy.

Solutions

In spite of all the problems, the actual results are quite good as the following table shows. If a User is familiar with one service, they are likely to understand the other, at least until the Identity Server function comes into play. This table could serve as the starting point for a taxonomy of common definitions of the areas where consumer privacy could be controlled.

Note that SMS is easy to hijack and should not be used for security purposes.

iPhone	Android	Windows
yes??	yes??	Accnt Info
Bluetooth		Radios
always	always	Background
Calendar	Calendar	Calendar
Camera	Camera	Camera
Contacts	Contacts	Contacts
??	??	Email
Health		yes??
Health+
Home
		File access
Location	Location	Location
Mic	Mic	Mic
Motion	Body
Music
	Phone
		Call History
yes??	yes??	Notification
Photos
Purchases	Purchases	Purchases
Reminders
Siri
	SMS	Messaging
Speech
	Storage
		Tasks
TV
		Other Devs
		Diagnostics
safari	chrome	File D/L
non-persist
DNT		File access

References

1. Native App Security
2. Native App
3. Apple building a trusted ecosystem for millions of apps.