More specifically, the problem of “privacy inference based on sensors” (PIS) here refers to any malicious activities that involve collecting data from those sensors that are not protected by mobile systems, in an attempt to infer sensitive user information. Indeed, privacy inference attacks based on innocuous sensors is an emerging and severe threat on smart devices. For example, demonstrates the feasibility for a malicious app to infer the smartphone user’s transportation mode, i.e., whether the user is stationary, walking, running, biking, or in motorized transport, by utilizing the onboard accelerometer. Recent studies have shown that, by utilizing these innocuous sensors, attackers are able to infer users’ behavior patterns and launch severe privacy inference attacks, such as keylogging, inferring user activity, profiling, and tracking. For example, when the user touches the screen to enter her screen lock password, the accelerometer may reveal regular patterns. However, when a user uses the device in regular patterns, things become more complicated. Mainstream mobile platforms, like Android, set no restrictions on accessing these innocuous sensors. Some sensors, like accelerometer and gyroscope, seem less sensitive compared to other device features like GPS location, device ID, and network access. For example, a navigation app can use the orientation sensor to suggest user about driving directions, and accelerometer can be used by a game app for user to steer a car by rotating the device. In particular, current smartphones are equipped with various sensors, like accelerometer and gyroscope, in the need of sensing device movement and ambient environment to make apps (short for applications) involved in user activity. With these multipurpose requirements, smartphones are designed with additional features, in both hardware and software.
Smartphones now are not just used for calling and messaging, they are utilized in multiple ways, such as entertainment, social networking, finance, and traveling. With the proliferation of smartphones, users are requiring various functionalities for different needs.
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