RESEARCH THRUST:
COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
PRIVATE DETECTIVE AntMonitor Advances Mobile Data Transparency
UCI associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science Athina Markopoulou (right) and her graduate research group have developed a mobile app that can perform real-time detection and prevention of private information leaked from devices to the network.
Mobile devices are today’s technology of choice, generating the majority of internet traffic. They’re
ubiquitous tools for working, socializing, communicating, shopping and more. But they also harbor a treasure trove of personal data, which, unbeknownst to users, can leak information to a host of unauthorized recipients. A research group led by Athina Markopoulou, associate professor of
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UCI Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Anna Lynn Spitzer Sharon Henry
electrical engineering and computer science, is working to plug those leaks by letting users know when they happen and where the information is bound. The team is developing AntMonitor, a mobile app that can perform real-time detection and prevention of private information leaked from devices to the network. “It’s useful to understand where your data are going,” Markopoulou says. “If half of my data plan is going to ad servers … that’s something I would like to know.