Data Essentials
What type of data input from a smartphone is essential for an app to provide real-time, turn-by-turn directions or suggest an efficient route through a store?
The user's current location (geolocation data)
How might an app use a smartphone's location services to automatically trigger an event, like sending a welcome notification when a user arrives at a specific place?
By detecting when the user's device enters a predefined geographic area (geofencing).
What is the difference between a direct function of an app (e.g., displaying a list) and a potential broader effect of using the app (e.g., saving time)?
A function is what the app is designed to do; an effect is a consequence (intended or unintended) of its use.
What is a primary privacy concern if an application continuously tracks and stores a user's location data, even when the app isn't actively in use?
The creation of a detailed history of the user's movements, which could be misused if accessed by unauthorized parties or used for invasive tracking/profiling.
This term describes any software specifically designed to damage a computing system or to take partial control over its operation.
Malware
Name a type of information a shopping app might store in its database about a grocery store.
Item prices, item locations within the store (aisle/shelf), or store hours.
What is the general term for a set of rules or steps an application follows to process data and achieve a specific outcome, such as determining the most efficient route?
An algorithm
If an app displays data aggregated by location (like "happy moments" per city), how might this lead to a misleading perception about different locations?
Areas with more users or more active users (e.g., larger towns) might appear to have more of the measured attribute (e.g., "happiness") simply due to higher data volume, not necessarily a higher per-capita rate. This is an example of data representation potentially leading to unintended bias.
If users can upload photos to an app that are then tagged with a location, what kind of information within the photos themselves could pose a privacy risk?
Identifiable faces, license plates, house numbers, street signs, or other details that could link the photo to a specific person or private location.
What is the term for a technique that attempts to trick a user into providing personal information, often through deceptive emails or websites?
Phishing
What is it called when an application relies on contributions from a large group of users to build its dataset, such as submitting photos or information?
Crowdsourcing
Some apps use a technique to automatically review user-generated content, like comments, to filter out undesirable contributions. What field of computer science is often used for this?
Machine Learning (or AI, natural language processing).
Describe one way an application that tracks user engagement or purchases within partner businesses might create an economic impact for those businesses.
It could drive more customers to the business or incentivize larger purchases through rewards, leading to increased revenue for the business (or the app might receive a commission).
What does PII stand for, and provide one example.
Personally Identifiable Information. Examples: full name, social security number, address, email address, phone number.
This type of malicious software records every keystroke a user makes, often to steal passwords or other confidential information.
Keylogging (or a keylogger).
Why is it often necessary for data, like photos or posts submitted by users, to be "tagged" with location information in apps that display content on a map?
So the app knows where to place the content on the map and allow users to find location-specific information.
What are common criteria an app might use to determine rankings on a leaderboard, based on user activity or submissions?
The quantity of submissions, the quality or ratings of submissions, or other engagement metrics.
Beyond its primary purpose, name a positive, but perhaps indirect, societal or personal benefit that a well-designed app could offer its users.
Increased efficiency leading to more free time, fostering community, encouraging positive behaviors, or enabling access to information/services.
Why is it important for users to review the permissions an app requests before installing it?
To understand what data the app will have access to (e.g., location, contacts, photos) and to decide if that level of access is necessary and acceptable for the app's function.
What is the process of converting an encrypted message back into its original, readable form called?
Decryption
For an app to calculate the total cost of a user's selected items, from where must the price data for each item originate if it's not input by the user for each item?
From a pre-existing database that contains item prices (e.g., the store's inventory database).
When an app guides a user through a sequence of items or tasks, what common user interface element allows the user to signal they are ready to proceed to the next step?
A button (e.g., "Next Item," "Continue," "Done").
What kind of negative user behavior might arise from highly competitive features in an app, such as a leaderboard where users are ranked against each other?
Users might try to "game the system," engage in unsportsmanlike conduct, or be discouraged from participating if they feel they can't compete. (e.g., not rating others to maintain their own high rank).
What is a potential security risk of connecting to an unknown or unsecured Wi-Fi network, sometimes referred to as a "rogue" version of this?
Data transmitted over the network could be intercepted by malicious actors (man-in-the-middle attack), or users could be redirected to fake websites. This relates to a "rogue access point.
This type of encryption uses a pair of keys: one is shared openly for encrypting messages, and the other is kept secret by the recipient for decrypting them.
Public key encryption