ID: edu.berkeley.icsi.haystack
Version: 1.0.0.6
File Size: 4.6Mb
ICSI Haystack Screenshots
ICSI Haystack Description
IMPORTANT: It's possible that your phone does not provide the basic support to run Haystack. This could be common on OS versions customized by your mobile operator or your handset vendor. Please let us know if you encounter problems so we can work to support a larger set of devices.The ICSI Haystack app enables you to identify apps running on your phone that leak private information, such as your phone number or location, and their traffic patterns. It identifies the app, the type of information, and where the app sends this data.
Your phone hosts a rich array of information about you and your activities, which we'll refer to as Personal Information (PI). This includes a range of identifiers that can enable sites to track you, your accounts, the apps that your run, your contacts, your messages, and even data about your location. Some mobile apps request permissions to access this information in various forms. Sometimes they require the information to provide basic
features of the app or adapt content to your device. For example, a Maps application of course needs to know your exact location. But in other cases, apps may collect PI for advertising and tracking purposes. We call
these PI leaks.
The ICSI Haystack analyzes your traffic and informs you when an application leaks PI and tries to provide as much information as possible about the organization gathering the information. It also provides detailed reports about your app's communication patterns, where they connect and which different domains you connected to. Haystack works by creating a local VPN (Virtual Private Network) to intercept and analyze all of your device's network traffic. To do so, Haystack requires a number of permissions, and if you want to enable it to inspect traffic that applications encrypt, then it requires installing a new "root certificate". It's very important to note that we do *not* forward your traffic to a remote server for analysis - all your personal data remains on your phone.
By installing the ICSI HayStack app, you participate on an an academic research project that aims to better understand this ecosystem and in turn to improve mobile app security and respect for privacy. Haystack has been developed by researchers at the University of California and at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, USA. Our goal is to understand the mobile app eco-system and its impact on user security and privacy, while also helping you to understand which organizations and apps collect personal information from your devices. For our research efforts, we collect information about your apps' behavior, the type of information the apps leak, and the organization collecting this information: WE DO NOT COLLECT ANY INFORMATION ABOUT YOU OR YOUR DEVICE. We upload the data securely over encrypted traffic to our servers; it remains completely anonymous, and conforms with a protocol reviewed by UC Berkeley / ICSI's Institutional Review Board (IRB). Please, we invite you to visit our website www.haystack.mobi for more information and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any question or concerns.
The ICSI Haystack app intercepts and analyzes your traffic, and so might negatively impact your device performance and battery life. Our benchmark shows that it can provide more than 30Mbps and add 5ms to your traffic. Haystack's battery consumption varies from 3 to 11% depending on your usage. While we try to make your experience as seamless as possible, you might sometimes see side-effects such as slower performance. Unfortunately, some devices block the basic operating system services on which Haystack is built upon; as a result,
your device might not be supported. We are would welcome hearing from you when this occurs so that we can improve Haystack.
Many thanks for your participation!
Features of ICSI Haystack 1.0.0.6
First app release.It may not be supported in many devices which do not support the basic features required by HayStack. If you encounter any problem, do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
Many thanks for your help!