Social and Privacy Issues with Smartphones

The evolution of mobile phones and the introduction of smartphones have made a breakthrough in the modern lifestyle. The way people communicate has changed dramatically since the emergence of smartphones. Not only have they made it easier to call or text peers, but they also have altered the social system in the modern age. People became more attached to their smart devices because those handsets contain more than mere numbers and messages; simply they hold most of their user’s life. Due to the deployment of mobile ubiquitous vision, smartphones have the characteristics of traditional mobile phones and computers. “Smartphones allow us to communicate via talk, text and video; access personal and work e-mail; access the Internet; make purchases; manage bank accounts; take pictures and do many other activities. They are becoming capable of doing more and more every day.” (Clearinghouse, 2005). Consequently, many aspects of the social system has been affected, issues and benefits have risen because of smartphones and sort of data they deal with. This report is intended to address some of the social implications of smart handsets, privacy issues, data utilisation, and effects on different age groups.

Most smart handset makers have manufactured their devices with numerous sensors that comply with context-aware approach in order to optimise the experience of using their devices. Features and sensors may include but not limited to; location, orientation, sound, temperature, and even eye-tracking. Such services along with many others have access to tremendous amounts of data available and ready to be read or collected. Unfortunately, (Clearinghouse, 2005) claimed that many users do not realise the sort of information they are carrying in their pockets-handhelds-. Therefore, information stored on such devices might be accessed by several parties including service provides, advertising companies, criminals, and government in some cases. Data available on smartphones can be summarised as follow (Clearinghouse, 2005):

Data collected by service providers:

1- Phone calls, numbers of people the user calls or receives calls from, and length of each call.

2- Text messages including numbers of senders and receivers.

3- Location

4- Intervals of checking email or browsing the internet.

Data might be disclosed or harvested by apps:

1- Files including videos and images.

2- Connect of messages and emails sent and received.

3- Call logs (time, duration, date, etc...)

4- Contacts store in phone

5- Passwords

6- Banking data

7- Calendar

8- GPS location, age, and gender

Because of the massive amounts of critical data about someone’s life are freely available in some way for the service provider, governments, and developing companies behind the apps installed in the smartphone there are two main social concerns that always have the attention of the public.

Firstly, how such capabilities of those mini-computers could be taken to be advantageous to their users and social circles. As mentioned before, sensors such as context-aware could be used to monitor the health status of the user. In an experiment that was carried out by MIT researchers intended to investigate whether data collected by smartphone could be used to track health issues. Surprisingly, the study revealed that participants who had less communication with their peers suffered from depression, others who had influenza moves less than those who were fine. Such results came by collecting data about the habitual uses of the handset (iHealthBeat, 2012). (Milosevic, et al., 2011) suggested that the number of people over the age of 65 is expected to reach more than 760 million globally by the year 2025. Such a number of elders requires the utilisation of modern technology to monitor their health state. (iHealthBeat, 2012) Said that the tool developed by the MIT researchers will be able to alert a family member, a friend, or a doctor about any medical problems a person is having by observing their behavioural patterns.

Moreover, another advantage of data obtainable from smartphones is to help parents monitor their children while not at home. For instance, a mother could use the location enabled service on smartphones to check her 12-year kid while he’s on the way to school, or when he’s lost somewhere (Luckerson, 2012). Therefore, making sure that children are in a safe place or away from troubling spots could be made easier by incorporating the features of smartphones to serve the purpose needed.

Nonetheless, information available on smart devices as said earlier could be used by governments, especially in law enforcement matters. (Clearinghouse, 2005)alleged that if someone was a subject of investigation, then the best source of information that could put that person into jail or free them out is their smartphone as it could reveal what they have been doing, where have they been going, and who they have been communicating with. Information of this regards could be obtained from the service provider or the handset itself.

Furthermore, there’s no doubt that smartphones have become a tool for individual empowerment as everyone uses their device and app on the way that pleases them and totally different from another user. (Barkhuus & Polichar, 2011) study showed that youth use smartphones in many different ways to express themselves, keep in touch with their peers and facilitate their life style. For example, they take advantage of the location enabled service to find amenities nearby, such as restaurants, bars, leisure areas, and even to find their friends using the suitable apps. What is more is that many users take the opportunity to share their life events with remote relatives using media sharing on social networks. Interestingly, others use features like movement sensors when going for a jog or doing sports.

On the other hand, there are many controversial issues regarding the data available on smartphones and the level of privacy they come with. That is because the information is not only accessible by people with good intentions or at least harmless parties, but they are also reachable by marketing companies, criminals, and apps developers (if configured to).

Unfortunately, apps can have direct access to the mobile files and data if they are configured to do so, even without taking the permission of the user, which could be sent to the company’s databases or outsiders. (THURM & KANE, 2010) reported that the Wall Street Journal ran an investigation which revealed that many popular apps on both platforms iOS and Android were sending information that included age, gender, location, and usage habits to outsiders without the knowledge of the mobile owners. Surprisingly those apps were approved by the stores of Apples and Google regardless of their allegedly policies of prohibiting such activities by approved apps.

Moreover, it is alleged that if the user was not buying the product (app) then they are the product itself. This was shown in a report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US where they analysed hundreds of free apps for kids. The results were stunning as 59 per cent of those apps were sending (selling) information advertising companies in order to target their potential customers with relevant advertisements (The_Irish_Times, 2012).

Being tracked is another severe issue in the world of smartphones. Due to the sensors exist in modern mobiles; anyone could be tracked by local police or service provider. Those concerns had a public outcry when reports showed that an app called Carrier IQ was collecting sensitive data and act as a spyware planted on smartphones. The issue has risen when it was revealed that apple is tracking its mobile users via the location-based services it had made available on their phones. (Poremba, 2011)

It is obvious that apps could be exploiting one’s personal life through the harvesting intentions they have. However, data shared by users themselves, intentionally, could be affecting them in some way. Almost every smartphone owner is using one or more social networking service like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram. Therefore, they are giving too much information about their lives in terms of locations, photos, emotions, and their social circles. Hence, advertising companies (or scammers) take advantage of that information to drag the users into visiting tailored websites that might fit into their interest. Scammer might use the data publicly available to draw a picture of that user in order to build up a profile of them before launching their scam against their victim.

As nowadays it normal to see teenagers having a smartphone or a tablet, and as they are naturally innocent by their age, they tend to download apps freely available on the app stores. As the study carried out by FTC showed that most invasive apps are those freely available (The_Irish_Times, 2012). It is logical to conclude that those kids might be exposed to advertisements that are not suitable for their age because of the targeted advertising which is based on data collected from their devices. Moreover, dating apps and adult content could be delivered to the screens of those children especially if the tablet or the smartphone was shared with elder member in the family (Carphone, 2012).

Since smartphones are more than a phone or a computer, their users have found themselves attached to them resulting in the phenomena of smartphone addiction. Concerns about this issue have risen due to the gap between people emerged in the physical social life. Almost everywhere it is noticeable that everyone is holding their smartphone in their hand, typing, browsing, or watching something with their heads down to the phone’s screen. In addition, family special events or even dinner is interrupted by one of them checking their social network messages. The development of dating apps have changed the real dating prestige, youth becoming more introvert and addicted to their handsets. Funnily enough, as some employers provide their employees with smartphone to keep them within reach whenever needed; turned to have undesirable consequences such as the feeling of excessive work and being accessible even out of working hours. Studies have shown that gaming and internet addiction are among the reasons of smartphone addictive behaviour. For example, children might be attached to the device due to the plenty of games available on that handset which results in future social difficulties due to the amount of time spent playing on these platforms. The same applies to the older groups where the presence of internet in the handheld makes it easy to be fond of sending hours digging into the web where endless volumes of information are available. (Rush, 2011)

To conclude, the smartphone industry has inevitably affected the life style in the modern age. It has changed the way people communicate, facilitated and made things easier in some aspects of daily life. The use of sensing systems in these small computers has been taken advantage of by apps that serve different age groups of the society. Monitoring the health of elderly people, guarding and ensuring the safety of children, and making the outdoor activities more enjoyable for adults, are simple example of how those devices can do to improve the social life of their users. However, users have to bear in mind that the information stored in their devices may not be within their control if they were not aware and cautious when making use of them. Last but not least, despite the features and huge number of facilities those handhelds could provide, one has to preserve their real physical life and avoid being attached and dependent on them. They are made to fulfill people needs not to limit lives within their squared