Authors
Quinn Grundy, Kellia Chiu, Fabian Held, Andrea Continella, Lisa Bero, Ralph Holz
Publication date
2019/3/20
Journal
bmj
Volume
364
Publisher
British Medical Journal Publishing Group
Description
Objectives
To investigate whether and how user data are shared by top rated medicines related mobile applications (apps) and to characterise privacy risks to app users, both clinicians and consumers.
Design
Traffic, content, and network analysis.
Setting
Top rated medicines related apps for the Android mobile platform available in the Medical store category of Google Play in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia.
Participants
24 of 821 apps identified by an app store crawling program. Included apps pertained to medicines information, dispensing, administration, prescribing, or use, and were interactive.
Interventions
Laboratory based traffic analysis of each app downloaded onto a smartphone, simulating real world use with four dummy scripts. The app’s baseline traffic related to 28 different types of user data was observed. To identify privacy leaks, one source of user data was modified and …
Scholar articles
Q Grundy, K Chiu, F Held, A Continella, L Bero, R Holz - bmj, 2019
Q Grundy, K Chiu, F Held, A Continella, L Bero, R Holz - 2019