Many mobile apps and games ask for access to personal data on smartphones. Smartphone users should be aware of privacy risks. We designed a mobile game called Alrow that aims to raise the awareness of smartphone users of the privacy risks they are exposed to. The game asks players to access personal data on their smartphones in exchange for special abilities for player characters. The players can tackle obstacles if they choose to grant access. This mechanism simulates existing mobile games that ask for access to personal data. At the end of the game, a message that prompts players to reflect on how their behavior exposes them to privacy risks is displayed.
Smartphones are currently familiar. However, they also expose users to privacy risks. The capability of collecting data, connectivity, and ubiquity of smartphones increases the need for awareness of privacy concerns among smartphone users. In this work, we focus on young smartphone users.
Young people usually share private information on social media platforms with friends and strangers. They may not realize the privacy risks.
Many mobile games, such as Candy Crush Saga, ask players to share the invitation and locations to obtain game advantages. Agreeing to these requests in exchange for benefits in mobile games can involve security and privacy risks. The action may leak personal data, such as contacts or private photos, on a smartphone. However, many youngsters are not aware of the potential consequences of their behavior.
This project aims to enhance the awareness of smartphone users of privacy concerns through a mobile game. We designed a game that pretends to ask players for access to data on a smartphone in exchange for game advantages. The character prompts players(smartphone users) to reflect on their behavior of accepting data access requests from mobile games.
We designed a mobile game called Alrow, which is a running game that features a robot running toward a destination. At certain events, the game asks players for access to personal data (which it does not actually collect). By granting access, players acquire the advantages of winning and completing the game. The ending of the game features an explanation of the game's purpose. The game attempts to remind users to be aware of their privacy.
The name of the robot protagonist in Alrow is Ray. He wants to alert his people that the kingdom is ruled by evil. Ray must sacrifice different parts of himself to gain the power to overcome the obstacles. His destination is the tower at the end of the running path, where he can alert the people in the kingdom.
The game has two main characters, Ray and Elva. Ray is the player character. Elva is the clever and gentle droid that accompanies Ray. Elva once served the evil king. However, she decided to leave the evil circle and find a hero who could fight the evil king. She eventually found Ray and partnered with him. Ray is determined to achieve the goal and is willing to sacrifice himself for justice.
The player character, Ray, keeps running in the game. The player must swipe left or right to unlock the gates ahead of him and pass through. The game has five zones. The zones have different obstacles and challenges, such as transparency doors and mist. If a player removes all obstacles and helps Ray reach the end of the five zones, the ending video, which intends to explain to the player about privacy concerns, is displayed.
Throughout the gameplay, when a player completes each zone, Elva asks the player for access to personal data on the smartphone in exchange for equipping Ray with special abilities (e.g., seeing through a mist) to overcome the challenges in the next zone. If the player denies the request, the player will not grant special abilities. Consequently, the challenges would be difficult to tackle. If the player gives access, Ray is equipped with unique skills, and the game can easily tackle the challenges.
The mechanism simulates how many mobile games and big Internet companies ask for access to personal data. If users want to use the services provided by those companies, they have to sacrifice their privacy.
At the end of the game, a video tells players how much personal data they could compromise by granting access in exchange for special abilities for Ray. It also states that the mobile game did not collect their data. The video explains to the players the current privacy issue and mobile apps. We hope the players will reflect on their behavior and raise awareness of privacy protection.
We included several symbolic elements in our game. The evil power ruling the kingdom in the game world represents the powerful Internet that collects enormous amounts of personal data. Ray represents hope. His struggle and goal are to alert all the people in the kingdom, which means our purpose of raise the awareness of smartphone users of privacy concerns.
The prototype of Alrow was made available in the annual show of an Asian design school for 45 days. Visitors could play with the prototype and leave feedback. We observed some visitors’ gameplay and talked to them about the game.
Some visitors understood the message behind the game soon after they started playing game. Some visitors paid considerable attention to the game mechanics and the visual design of the game. Their comments were positive. However, some of them missed the message behind the game. One reason may be that the visitors skipped the introduction and focused on the gameplay.
We designed a mobile game that aims to raise awareness of people of privacy concerns. The game asks for access to the players’ smartphone data in exchange for particular abilities that allow them to proceed with the game. The end of the game explains the message and prompts players to reflect on their behavior of granting access to their data.
This project can still improve several areas. Some players may not be motivated enough to give up their privacy to acquire special abilities for the player character. The current design only features two main characters. Several characters can be added as additional forms of incentives. The player can unlock new characters if players are willing to grant access to their private data.
Some players might skip the introduction of the game. One possible improvement is to convert the introduction into an interactive comic to engage the players.
