Methods and systems for rating privacy risk of applications for smart phones and other mobile platforms

Abstract

Methods and systems for evaluating and rating privacy risks posed by applications intended for deployment on mobile platforms. Validating the “intent” of a mobile platform application vis-à-vis its impact on user privacy, as viewed from an end-user's perspective allows those end-users to make better-informed decisions concerning the downloading, installation and/or operation of mobile platform applications. In making such assessments user preferences can be taken into account. Privacy scores are provided through sales channels for the applications, thereby affording potential users the opportunity to assess whether they wish to incur the associated privacy risk, before purchasing a subject application.

1 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, by a host computer system, a copy of a mobile platform application designed for execution on a mobile platform;   determining, by the host computer system, (i) an intended purpose of the mobile platform application, (ii) one or more files stored on or included in the mobile platform or functionalities afforded by the mobile platform that are accessed by the mobile platform application during its operation on the mobile platform, (iii) whether said accesses are consistent with the intended purpose of the mobile platform application, and (iv) an overall score for the mobile platform application based upon said determinations; and   presenting the overall score to a potential user of the mobile platform application.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the intended purpose is determined from information regarding said intended purpose of the mobile platform application received in conjunction with the copy of the mobile platform application. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 determining a weighted rating for each of the discrepancies;   calculating a weighted average based upon the weighted rating assigned to each of the discrepancies; and   calibrating the weighted average to determine the overall score.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the determination of at least one of the actual purpose and the weighted rating for a subject discrepancy is based upon at least one of a privacy criterion and a technical criterion. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein determining the weighted rating for a subject discrepancy includes at least one of:
 determining a probability that the subject discrepancy poses a risk to the potential user's privacy;   determining a type of risk the subject discrepancy poses to the potential user's privacy; and   determining a degree of severity for a risk the subject discrepancy poses to the potential user's privacy.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the determinations are user configurable. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the mobile platform application is received by the host computer system from the mobile platform. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the mobile platform application is received by the host computer system from the mobile platform as part of an installation or execution process for the mobile platform application on the mobile platform. 
     
     
         9 . A method, comprising evaluating, by a first computer system, a risk to privacy of a user of a second computer system, when said second computer system executes an application, said risk to privacy determined according to an evaluation of the application's intended purpose in light of functionality provided by the second computer system to be accessed by the application when executing on the second computer system; and presenting results of said evaluating to potential users of the application through sales channels for the application prior to installation of the application on the second computer system. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein evaluating said risk to privacy comprises determining discrepancies between the intended purpose of the application and an actual purpose thereof, said actual purpose determined through evaluation of kinds and natures of files stored on or included in the second computer system that are to be accessed by the application during its operation. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 evaluating the copy of the mobile platform application according to a criterion; and   determining the overall score responsively to the evaluation.