Mind-proofing Your Phone: Navigating the Digital Minefield with GreaseTerminator

Datta, Siddhartha; Kollnig, Konrad; Shadbolt, Nigel

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2112.10699

Cited by 3 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…While the proposal for a collaborative low-code development system for end-users can have many use cases, such as customizing themes or UI/UX modernization of legacy interfaces, we extend on the developing literature on digital harms mitigation, in-line with prior work on interface re-rendering [12,48]. Further on digital harms, we propose a methodology for end-users to construct their own interventions.…”

Section: Problem Scopementioning

confidence: 96%

“…It may render sub-interfaces, labels, or other graphics on top of the foreground app. Prominent examples are DetoxDroid [20], Gray-Switch [25], Google Accessibility Suite [29], and GreaseTerminator [12].…”

Section: Interface Renderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To support the systemic requirements in Section 2.4, we require an interface modification approach that is (i) interface-agnostic and (ii) easy-touse. To this extent, we build upon the work of GreaseTerminator [12], a framework optimized for these two requirements.…”

Section: Interface Renderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In response to the continued widespread presence of interfacebased harms in digital systems, Datta et al [12] developed GreaseTerminator, a visual overlay modification method. This approach enables researchers to develop, deploy and study interventions against interface-based harms in apps.…”

Section: Interface Renderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…user studies), hence we do not replicate these studies to evaluate our reproduced designs. The methodology for constructing a wide range of existing intervention designs with overlay graphics rendering has been validated in the GreaseTerminator work [12]. The scope of types of intervention development is not under consideration when evaluating this HITL approach.…”

Section: Problem Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

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GreaseVision: Rewriting the Rules of the Interface

Datta¹,

Kollnig²,

Shadbolt³

2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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Digital harms can manifest across any interface. Key problems in addressing these harms include the high individuality of harms and the fast-changing nature of digital systems. As a result, we still lack a systematic approach to study harms and produce interventions for end-users. We put forward GreaseVision, a new framework that enables end-users to collaboratively develop interventions against harms in software using a no-code approach and recent advances in few-shot machine learning. The contribution of the framework and tool allow individual end-users to study their usage history and create personalized interventions. Our contribution also enables researchers to study the distribution of harms and interventions at scale.

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Section: Problem Scopementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Interface Renderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interface Renderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interface Renderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Problem Scopementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

GreaseVision: Rewriting the Rules of the Interface

Datta¹,

Kollnig²,

Shadbolt³

2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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‘We are adults and deserve control of our phones’: Examining the risks and opportunities of a right to repair for mobile apps

Kollnig

Datta

Davier

et al. 2023

2023 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency

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Many mobile apps are designed not just to support end-users' needs, but also commercial aims. This can result in app designs that compromise end-user privacy, safety, and well-being. Since apps nowadays provide vital digital information and services, users often have no choice but to accept potentially harmful or manipulative app designs. What if, instead, individuals could customise their apps to make them safer and better suit their needs? This exploratory work examines this question through a multi-faceted approach; rst, to understand user needs, we conducted a survey (𝑛 = 100) of changes users wanted in their apps, and of perceptions of risks in app repair. Second, to identify technical challenges, we developed a prototype that enables end-users to change their apps, and realised several modi cations suggested by survey participants. Finally, we conduct a set of expert interviews (𝑛 = 8) to delve into the ethical and legal aspects of such a tool, and synthesise a framework of risks and opportunities of app repair. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in ubiquitous and mobile computing; • Security and privacy → Software and application security.

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Imagining, Studying and Realising A Less Harmful App Ecosystem

Kollnig¹,

Datta²,

Shadbolt³

2022

Preprint

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This a preprint of work-in-progress.Desktop browser extensions have long allowed users to improve their experience online and tackle widespread harms on websites. So far, no equivalent solution exists for mobile apps, despite the fact that individuals now spend significantly more time on mobile than on desktop, and arguably face similarly widespread harms.In this work, we investigate mobile app extensions, a previously underexplored concept to study and address digital harms within mobile apps in a decentralised, community-driven way. We analyse challenges to adoption of this approach so far, and present a readyto-use implementation for Android as a result of significant and careful system development. Through a range of case studies, we demonstrate that our implementation can already reduce (though not completely eliminate) a wide range of harms -similarly as browser extensions do on desktops.Our method provides a versatile foundation for a range of followup research into digital harms in mobile apps that has not previously been possible, given that browser extensions have long been a fruitful foundation for research studies on desktops. In other words, our system tries to address the gap of a focus on desktop interventions in previous research. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → Government technology policy; • Human-centered computing → Collaborative and social computing design and evaluation methods; Accessibility systems and tools; Ubiquitous and mobile devices.

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Mind-proofing Your Phone: Navigating the Digital Minefield with GreaseTerminator

Cited by 3 publications

References 25 publications

GreaseVision: Rewriting the Rules of the Interface

GreaseVision: Rewriting the Rules of the Interface

‘We are adults and deserve control of our phones’: Examining the risks and opportunities of a right to repair for mobile apps

Imagining, Studying and Realising A Less Harmful App Ecosystem

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