"Vanderbilt Computer Scientists Develop Community-Based App for Managing Mobile Privacy and Security"
Mamtaj Akter, a graduate student in computer science at Vanderbilt University working in the lab of Pamela Wisniewski, Flowers Family Fellow in Engineering and associate professor of computer science, co-authored a study evaluating how technology can help people in managing mobile privacy and security as a community. The Community Oversight of Privacy and Security (CO-oPS) app was developed in 2022 by Akter, Wisniewski, and their collaborators from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and the University of Cincinnati to evaluate the role of community oversight in fostering collective efficacy for groups managing their mobile privacy and security together. Their initial research focused on its use by parents and teens. The current research, conducted within the Socio-Technical Interaction Research lab led by Wisniewski, Akter, and her co-authors, was a four-week field study with 22 communities of friends, families, and/or coworkers who installed the CO-oPS app on their mobile devices. Individual and community participation in mobile privacy and security co-management, as well as transparency, trust, and awareness of one another's mobile privacy and security behaviors, were measured. After using the app, individual and collective capacity for managing mobile privacy and security increased, with some concerns regarding collaborative management of mobile privacy and security. This article continues to discuss the research and findings behind the CO-oPS app.