Privacy Implications of Accelerometer Data: A Review of Possible Inferences

Association for Computing Machinery ^ | Kroger, Raschke, Bhuiyan

[LibWhacker]

Accelerometers are sensors for measuring acceleration forces. They can be found embedded in many types of mobile devices, including tablet PCs, smartphones, and smartwatches. Some common uses of built-in accelerometers are automatic image stabilization, device orientation detection, and shake detection. In contrast to sensors like microphones and cameras, accelerometers are widely regarded as not privacy-intrusive. This sentiment is reflected in protection policies of current mobile operating systems, where third-party apps can access accelerometer data without requiring security permission. It has been shown in experiments, however, that seemingly innocuous sensors can be used as a side channel to infer highly sensitive information about people in their vicinity. Drawing from existing literature, we found that accelerometer data alone may be sufficient to obtain information about a device holder’s location, activities, health condition, body features, gender, age, personality traits, and emotional state. Acceleration signals can even be used to uniquely identify a person based on biometric movement patterns and to reconstruct sequences of text entered into a device, including passwords. In the light of these possible inferences, we suggest that accelerometers should urgently be re-evaluated in terms of their privacy implications, along with corresponding adjustments to sensor protection mechanisms.

[...]

While some sensors, such as microphones, cameras and GPS, arewidely perceived as privacy-sensitive [4, 5] and require explicituser permission to be activated in current mobile operating systems [3], accelerometers are less well-understood in terms of their privacy implications, and also much less protected [6, 7]. Even scholarly literature has largely ignored potential issues in this field, with researchers describing accelerometer data as “not particularly sensitive” [8] or even “privacy preserving” [9].

Experimental studies have shown, however, that sensitive personal data can be inferred from accelerometer readings. This paper presents a non-exhaustive overview of possible inferences, drawing from multiple academic disciplines, including infor-mation science, psychology, health science, and computer science. According to our findings, accelerometers in mobile devices may reveal information about a user’s activities (section 2.1), location (sect. 2.2), identity (sect. 2.3), device inputs (sect. 2.4), health condition and body features (sect. 2.5), age and gender (sect. 2.6), moods and emotions (sect. 2.7), and personality traits (sect. 2.8)

[...]

"...accelerometer data from smartphones can reveal people's location, passwords, body features, age, gender, level of intoxication, driving style, and be used to reconstruct words spoken next to the device."

[LibWhacker]

Heck of a time posting this because it's a PDF file, uses double column formatting, I couldn't get a url for images, etc... what a nightmare. At first I thought I'd just snag the source code and post that. But... no such luck, lol. If anyone can do better, please do, thank you.

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. Very interesting.

I used accelerometers for vibration testing years ago.

https://www.omega.com/en-us/resources/accelerometers

[nascarnation]

It’s amazing what the phone knows.
walking stride length
amount of time spend on with both feet on ground
If you’re limping or not

[PGalt]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=brain+wave+frequency+chart&t=osx&ia=web

frequencies are very interesting also

[PGalt]

YES

[rdcbn1]

accelerometers in iPhones are every bit as good, if not better, than the ones the military has used for inertial. navigation

[PGalt]

on my doggie walk i did 1884 steps this morning. walking and running distances was 0.85 miles. i did not climb a flight of steps. I’ve had 3 more walks without the phone.

[PGalt]

thanks for that info

[nascarnation]

I found this out last week after I hurt my hip and the phone told me I was limping. I had no idea (iPhone 11) Now I’m ok and it’s happy.

[PGalt]

thanks. what a great topic.

https://eocinstitute.org/meditation/brainwave_charts_brainwave_patterns/

[PGalt]

speaking of left brain right brain...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cerrfodYTCo

: )

[BenLurkin]

The world will be a better place once the internet crashes and goes away.

[LibWhacker]

Thanks for the links. I think I’m just going to move to the end of the road somewhere in Alaska, throw out all my high tech stuff and just fish and hunt moose. In ten years they’ll probably be able to read our minds from space but I’ll be dead by then... haha beat ‘em!

[null and void]

The world will be a better place once the internet crashes and goes away.

For the people whose food and energy supplies are not utterly depended on the internet to replenish everything Just-In-Time on a 3 day cycle, maybe.

[PGalt]

iPhone 6S...from wife. i had a flip phone b/4 from my daughter. i didn’t want a phone. the technology troubled me. it can be used for good or bad. so far so good for me.

[PGalt]

oops shudda pinged you LibWhacker. As vociferous as i am, i have not had any negative repercussions, yet. I do keep my eyes wide open though.

[PGalt]

+ it helps to have a crazy “no fear” mindset and faith

[bigbob]

Hardly! But thanks for the chuckle.

[Magnum44]

accelerometers in iPhones are every bit as good, if not better, than the ones the military has used for inertial. navigation

Same gen vs gen, probably not, but that would be beside the point. You phone is already capturing what cell youre in, if it has GPS on then its capturing that. The accelerometer just has to fill in gaps between GPS measurements so it doesnt have to be that good anyway.

[BenLurkin]

Well yes, there would be a few “bumps in the road” along the way.