Every day, people trust mobile applications with personal information, from email addresses and phone numbers to location and shopping histories. But how responsibly do those applications handle that data?
Xueling Zhang, assistant professor in Purdue Polytechnic Institute's School of Applied and Creative Computing, is exploring that question through research focused on software security, privacy and the reliability of mobile applications.
Her work examines how applications collect, manage and potentially share personal information with third parties, including analytics services and advertisers. Beyond personally identifiable information, Zhang studies how sensitive data such as shopping habits and health information can be linked to individual users. To uncover these risks, Zhang and her team develop automated techniques that combine static and dynamic program analysis with AI to trace how apps handle personal data.
Zhang's broader research also focuses on developing testing and analysis techniques to improve software security and reliability, including applications developed for emerging technologies such as extended reality (XR), like augmented reality apps.
During an Oct. 29 faculty presentation at Purdue University in Indianapolis, Zhang discussed her research into mobile application privacy and the potential risks associated with sharing personal data.
Watch a short excerpt from Zhang's presentation to learn more about her research.
Learn more about Xueling Zhang and her research.
