Repository for the Paper "Investigating the Cross-app Data Sharing Implications of Using Android Health Connect"

This repository contains the following six files:

1. The supplementary document "Supplementary Document 1.pdf" for the paper.

It is recommended that you use Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.

In this document, we provide more details regarding the write and read permissions declared by each of the 41 Android Health Connect (AHC) compatible apps. We also analyze whether an app’s declared write and read permissions align with its functionality by checking the app’s description on Google Play and user interfaces. Note that in "Section 3: Cross-app Data Sharing in AHC" of the main paper, we referenced the relevant content in this supplementary document.

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2. The supplementary document "Supplementary Document 2.pdf" for the paper.

It is recommended that you use Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.

In Section 1, we describe the user study flow.

In Section 2, we provide the list of all questions asked in the user study.

In Section 3, we provide the additional design details and results.

Note that in "Section 4: Users’ Understanding of the Cross-app Data Sharing Implications" of the main paper, we referenced the relevant content from Sections 1, 2, and 3 of this supplementary document.

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3. The zipped file "datasets.zip" for our datasets.

After unzipping the datasets.zip file, you will see four subfolders: /app_information, /permission_manifest_files, /data_safety, and /privacy_policies.

The /app_information subfolder contains an CSV document for the mapping of the 41 AHC-compatible apps’ numbers to their Android package names, app names, and app metadata, Obtained in May 2025.

The /permission_manifest_files subfolder contains permission manifest XML files of the 41 AHC-compatible apps.

The /data_safety subfolder contains an CSV document for the 41 AHC-compatible apps' data safety section contents.

The /privacy_policies subfolder contains 31 unique privacy policy text files from the 41 AHC-compatible apps.

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4. The zipped file "demo_app.zip" for the AHC-compatible app we developed.

After unzipping the demo_app.zip file, you will see the demo_app.apk file, along with a README.pdf file containing usage instructions.

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5. The zipped file "web_app_code.zip" for our study website.

After unzipping the web_app_code_anonymized.zip file, you will see six subfolders: /html, /img, /js, /php, /sql, and /figures along with a README.txt file that contains usage instructions.

To run the web app, you need to install both a MySQL database and an Apache web server.

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6. The folder "larger_size_screenshots" for larger size screenshots of our simulated interfaces.