LAUSR

Users share their personal devices with different entities in various circumstances. While prior research shed light on the broad reasons behind the sharing of mobile phones, there is a dearth of systematic study to understand the user's decision-making process and the underlying preferences and concerns in the context of phone sharing. To address these gaps, we designed a prototype that we leveraged to investigate the interplay between a user's relationship with sharees, preferences of sharing a subset of apps with a certain entity, perceived sensitivity of the apps being shared, and how these factors relate to their authentication behavior. We conducted a multi-session study with 50 participants from three countries (USA, Turkey, and Nepal), where the participants interacted with our prototype and took part in semi-structured interviews. The findings from our study revealed the need for phone sharing at a granular level, where we identified the factors that could influence a user's decision-making process in sharing. Our analysis unpacked the relation between a user's perceived sensitivity of apps being shared, and authentication behavior to protect information from unauthorized access. Overall, our findings advance the CSCW community's understanding of how the user attains a balance between privacy protection and the need for phone sharing.