Personal data protection on "smart" devices environment

Summary

If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product... It has been the topic of our times, after the technological breakthrough of the last decades, the software and hardware innovations, the development of social networks and the information flow in zero times worldwide, the question inevitably arises. How do we pay this cost? People nowadays pay for their smartphone devices, some- times as a luxury gadget and other times as a necessity, along with their monthly fee to the mobile provider. But the mobile operating system with its updates and the majority of the applications available on stores are coming for free. At a first glance this does not make very sense, especially when simple chatting applications were acquired by technological giants for billions. It is quite significant that a mobile user is able to download hundreds, with respect to the mobile storage, applications for any kind of need for free. Most people would tell that the cost is paid indirectly via mobile advertisement, but how many realise how this advertisement is taking place, what information they are sharing during daily interaction with their smart- phones and the most important to whom. Data privacy came late in our dictionary compared to the applications which make use of those data wasting valuable time. However, nowadays several steps have been taken into the right direction either by state institutions or international organizations to set the right framework for the users protection. The scientific community should contribute through supporting the proper use of software tools and also the correct information of their users regarding the exposure of their personal data to third parties. Based on this view, current research intends to help identify potential risks of users’ data privacy, perform experiments to gather evidence, discuss their impact and propose improvements for the future.