A Privacy-Enabled Mobile Computing Model Using Intelligent Cloud-Based Services

Protecting the user’s digital privacy in today’s increasingly mobile world is a significant challenge. As mobile applications grow in complexity they will exceed the computational capabilities and power limitations of the mobile devices on which they run. To overcome the inherent limitations of mobile devices, mobile application designers are turning to the cloud for solutions. The primary rationale is that by off-loading computationally demanding tasks, mobile applications can provide users with sophisticated features that exceed the device’s capabilities. This research analyzes two impactful mobile computing trends from a privacy-protection perspective: (1) mobile applications are increasingly relying on cloud-based services; and (2) cloud-based services will eventually specialize beyond the expertise of mobile application developers. From a privacy perspective, this increased reliance on cloud computing poses additional challenges. In this research, we propose a model that aims to support mobile users to decide if, when, and how a cloud-based service or resource could be used in a way that protects their privacy. In this paper, we present (1) the model describing the roles of two collaborating components: a mobile device agent and a privacy service mediator, (2) use cases and design considerations, and (3) future work.