Analyzing privacy policies through syntax-driven semantic analysis of information types

Abstract

Several government laws and app markets, such as Google Play, require the disclosure of app data practices to users. These data practices constitute critical privacy requirements statements, since they underpin the app’s functionality while describing how various personal information types are collected, used, and with whom they are shared. Abstract and ambiguous terminology in requirements statements concerning information types (e.g., “we collect your device information”), can reduce shared understanding among app developers, policy writers, and users. To address this challenge, we propose a syntax-driven method that first parses a given information type phrase (e.g. mobile device identifier) into its constituents using a context-free grammar and second infers semantic relationships between constituents using semantic rules. The inferred semantic relationships between a given phrase and its constituents generate a hierarchy that models the generality and ambiguity of phrases. Through this method, we infer relations from a lexicon consisting of a set of information type phrases to populate a partial ontology. The resulting ontology is a knowledge graph that can be used to guide requirements authors in the selection of the most appropriate information type terms. We evaluate the method’s performance using two criteria: (1) expert assessment of relations between information types; and (2) non-expert preferences for relations between information types. The results suggest performance improvement when compared to a previously proposed method. We also evaluate the reliability of the method considering the information types extracted from different data practices (e.g., collection, usage, sharing, etc.) in privacy policies for mobile or web-based apps in various app domains. The method achieves average of 89% precision and 87% recall considering information types from various app domains and data practices. Due to these results, we conclude that the method can be generalized reliably in inferring relations and reducing the ambiguity and abstraction in privacy policies. • Abstract terms in privacy policies reduce shared understanding among stakeholders. • Ontology is a knowledge graph containing information types and semantic relations. • Ontology guides requirements analysts in the selection of the most appropriate terms. • Ontology help reduce the abstraction and ambiguity problems in privacy policies.