UC Berkeley

Application platforms provide applications with accessto hardware (e.g., GPS and cameras) and personal data.Modern platforms use permission systems to protect access to these resources. The nature of these permissionsystems vary widely across platforms. Some platformsobtain user consent as part of installation, while othersdisplay runtime consent dialogs. We propose a set ofguidelines to aid platform designers in determining themost appropriate permission-granting mechanism for agiven permission. We apply our proposal to a smartphone platform. A preliminary evaluation indicates thatour model will reduce the number of warnings presentedto users, thereby reducing habituation effects.