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Exposing hidden surveillance in mobile apps
Sean O'Brien
Think your phone is safe from the creepy gaze of advertisers? Think again. Not only do big tech companies have a grip on your mobile device, but there's a clandestine industry of surveillance inside the world's most popular apps. Researchers at Yale Privacy Lab and Exodus Privacy are collaborating with F-Droid to expose this kind of tracking in Android apps. This session will give an overview of Yale Privacy Lab's approach, and introduce you to the Exodus privacy auditing platform, a free software scanner that analyzes Android apps and reports a list of detected trackers and app permissions. We will talk about static analysis of app packages, network analysis, impostor apps, and our work on related privacy issues such as tracking through ultrasonic beacons.