Investigating the Animation of Application Permission Dialogs: A Case Study of Facebook

Abstract

Third party applications play an important role in enhancing a social network user’s online experience. These applications request various permissions from the users at install-time. However, these permissions are often ignored, and the users end up granting access to sensitive information. This motivates the need for techniques that can attract user attention towards the requested permissions and make users read and understand the permissions before authorizing them.

We investigate the animation of application permission dialogs. Using a real-life analogy of luggage screening at airport security checkpoints, we attempt to draw user attention towards application’s requested permissions. We map the various elements involved at an airport security checkpoint to our context through the use of avatars, and present the permissions one by one. The user makes decision on a permission based on its provided details. The permission details include its description, type, and the user’s personal information example to communicate the potential information disclosure in the event of its authorization. We developed a prototype of our proposed animated dialog design for Facebook applications, and compared it with Facebook’s existing dialog designs. Our preliminary evaluation on 16 participants with the help of their eye-tracking data shows that the use of animation and personal information examples on a permission authorization dialog is effective.