Privacy Assessment in Android Apps: A Systematic Mapping Study

Android apps are daily installed by billions of users worldwide, who grant access to an extensive set of sensitive personal data. Different techniques have been developed over the years to understand how apps protect or harm their users' privacy. However, these results have been produced in different research domains and addressing privacy from different perspectives, resulting in a growing but scattered body of knowledge. To bridge this gap, we have carried out a systematic mapping study to provide practitioners and researchers with an overview of the state-of-the-art technique, published between 2016 and 2020, to assess privacy in Android apps. In this paper, we highlight the most relevant findings, identify and analyse the most pressing gaps, and discuss the promising research directions.

Automated summary

Billions of users worldwide daily install Android apps, which access a vast amount of sensitive personal data. Various techniques have been developed to understand how apps protect or harm user privacy, but these results come from different research domains and perspectives, resulting in a scattered body of knowledge. To address this gap, a systematic mapping study was conducted to provide an overview of state-of-the-art techniques for assessing privacy in Android apps between 2016 and 2020, highlighting relevant findings, identifying pressing gaps, and discussing promising research directions.