Analyzing Consumer’s Awareness of Protecting Personally Identifiable Information on Android Smartphones

Using a technical development staff consisting of Program Managers, System Engineers, and Software Developers, this phenomenological study will investigate their experiences and awareness of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) controls on Android smartphones. For this investigation, the central research question is how can the technical development staff understand the methods for protecting PII on Android smartphones. In addition, the phenomenological research will explore the technical development staff’s experiences with permission warnings on Android applications and the risks of protecting PII. Android smartphones process and store more PII than a personal computer. Security risks with the Android operating system are the excessive permissions which are requested by applications and granted by the technical development staff. Android applications have unrestricted access to data, and PII is not protected. Also, this research will provide a description of the dangerous permission groups and methods for protecting PII on Android smartphones. Phenomenological studies are best suited for investigating research problems with the technical development staff’s awareness of the capabilities to protect PII on Android Smartphones. A sample size of 12 participants will be used with the phenomenological study. For this research, the aim is to describe as accurately as possible the phenomenon, refraining from any pre-given framework, but remaining true to the facts. Research will determine if the technical development staff is aware of the PII protection controls which can be implemented on Android smartphones. With this phenomenological study, the central research question is how can the technical development staff understand the methods for protecting PII on Android smartphones. Emerging themes were investigated for their purpose within the transcript. From the emerging themes, the diverging and converging patterns were examined