Investigating unlocking behavior and usage patterns of Android smartphone users

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To protect personal and other sensitive information from unauthorized access, some smartphone users lock their phones. Yet, others don't, risking the data and online services accessible through their devices. The research community is struggling to understand the interplay between (a) the security and usability of unlocking mechanisms, (b) the smartphone usage patterns, and (c) the willingness of users to lock their ever so personal devices. While the security and usability of Android standard unlocking mechanisms have been extensively studied in laboratory conditions and through surveys, it's largely unclear (1) how these unlocking mechanisms perform in the wild, and (2) how their choice by users is correlated with the different patterns of smartphone usage. We will conduct a longitudinal field study to obtain empirical data on user behaviour, when it comes to unlocking and using Android smartphones. By analyzing the data, we will obtain distribution and measure of various characteristics of phone locking and unlocking, phone and app usage, and sensor and communication devices on the phones. We will also survey our participants to further the understanding of the context in which they use their phones. We believe that the understanding gained from our investigations will play an important role in the design of future unlocking mechanisms.