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Main Authors: Kohli, Rishika, Gupta, Shaifu, Gaur, Manoj Singh
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.07107
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author Kohli, Rishika
Gupta, Shaifu
Gaur, Manoj Singh
author_facet Kohli, Rishika
Gupta, Shaifu
Gaur, Manoj Singh
contents User profiling, the practice of collecting user information for personalized recommendations, has become widespread, driving progress in technology. However, this growth poses a threat to user privacy, as devices often collect sensitive data without their owners' awareness. This article aims to consolidate knowledge on user profiling, exploring various approaches and associated challenges. Through the lens of two companies sharing user data and an analysis of 18 popular Android applications in India across various categories, including $\textit{Social, Education, Entertainment, Travel, Shopping and Others}$, the article unveils privacy vulnerabilities. Further, the article propose an enhanced machine learning framework, employing decision trees and neural networks, that improves state-of-the-art classifiers in detecting personal information exposure. Leveraging the XAI (explainable artificial intelligence) algorithm LIME (Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations), it enhances interpretability, crucial for reliably identifying sensitive data. Results demonstrate a noteworthy performance boost, achieving a $75.01\%$ accuracy with a reduced training time of $3.62$ seconds for neural networks. Concluding, the paper suggests research directions to strengthen digital security measures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_07107
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Guarding Digital Privacy: Exploring User Profiling and Security Enhancements
Kohli, Rishika
Gupta, Shaifu
Gaur, Manoj Singh
Information Retrieval
Machine Learning
User profiling, the practice of collecting user information for personalized recommendations, has become widespread, driving progress in technology. However, this growth poses a threat to user privacy, as devices often collect sensitive data without their owners' awareness. This article aims to consolidate knowledge on user profiling, exploring various approaches and associated challenges. Through the lens of two companies sharing user data and an analysis of 18 popular Android applications in India across various categories, including $\textit{Social, Education, Entertainment, Travel, Shopping and Others}$, the article unveils privacy vulnerabilities. Further, the article propose an enhanced machine learning framework, employing decision trees and neural networks, that improves state-of-the-art classifiers in detecting personal information exposure. Leveraging the XAI (explainable artificial intelligence) algorithm LIME (Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations), it enhances interpretability, crucial for reliably identifying sensitive data. Results demonstrate a noteworthy performance boost, achieving a $75.01\%$ accuracy with a reduced training time of $3.62$ seconds for neural networks. Concluding, the paper suggests research directions to strengthen digital security measures.
title Guarding Digital Privacy: Exploring User Profiling and Security Enhancements
topic Information Retrieval
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.07107