ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we propose NativeWrap as a new alternative model for privacy-conscious consumers to use web-based applications on smartphones. NativeWrap balances the security and privacy risks of using the smartphone application and the phone's web browser. When a user is visiting a website in the phone's browser that he/she would like to run as a native app, he/she “shares” the URL with NativeWrap. NativeWrap then “wraps” the URL into a native platform app while configuring best-practice security options. In effect, NativeWrap removes the third-party developer from the platform code, placing the user in control. The primary contribution of this chapter is a new approach for privacy-concerned consumers to access web content from smartphones and mobile devices. To demonstrate the approach, we describe the prototype implementation of NativeWrap for Android, and show its compatibility with the top 500 websites from Alexa.com. NativeWrap has been deployed on the Google Play Store and installed more than 10,000 times since August 2014, with generally positive user reviews.
