TruBeRepec: a trust-behavior-based reputation and recommender system for mobile applications

Mobile applications are software packages that can be installed and executed in a mobile device. Which mobile application is trustworthy for a user to purchase, download, install, execute or recommend becomes a crucial issue that impacts its final success. This paper proposes TruBeRepec, a trust-behavior-based reputation and recommender system for mobile applications. We explore a model of trust behavior for mobile applications based on the result of a large-scale user survey. We further develop a number of algorithms that are used to evaluate individual user's trust in a mobile application through trust behavior observation, generate the application's reputation by aggregating individual trust and provide application recommendations based on the correlation of trust behaviors. We show the practical significance of TruBeRepec through simulations and analysis with regard to effectiveness, robustness, and usability, as well as privacy.